Qualcomm wraps up $2.4bn acquisition of Alphawave Semi

Alphawave Semi develops high-speed connectivity and compute technologies including IP, custom silicon, products and chiplets to improve data transfer efficiency.

RanjithKumar Dharma December 19 2025

Qualcomm has concluded the acquisition of Alphawave Group, known as Alphawave Semi, for an implied enterprise value of around $2.4bn (£1.79bn).

The company reported that the transaction was completed a quarter ahead of schedule.

Announced in June 2025, the deal was originally expected to close in the first quarter of 2026.

Tony Pialis, CEO and co-founder of Alphawave Semi, will lead Qualcomm’s data centre business.

Pialis said: “Joining Qualcomm marks an exciting new chapter for Alphawave Semi.

“We are ready to bring our leadership in high-speed connectivity and custom silicon to help shape the future of data centre innovation.”

According to Qualcomm, the acquisition is intended to provide key assets for its strategy to expand into data centres.

The company noted that its Oryon CPU and Hexagon NPU processors are positioned to address growing demand in high-performance, low-power computing, which is linked to increased AI inferencing and a move towards custom central processing units (CPUs) in data centres.

Alphawave Semi develops high-speed wired connectivity and compute technologies. These include IP, custom silicon, connectivity products, and chiplets aimed at improving data transfer performance, reliability and power efficiency.

Its products are used as part of infrastructure supporting next-generation services across applications such as data centres, AI, data networking and data storage.

Qualcomm president and CEO Cristiano Amon said: “Alphawave Semi’s expertise in high-speed connectivity technologies complements our Qualcomm Oryon CPU and Hexagon NPU [neural processing unit] processors.

“Qualcomm delivers high-performance, energy-efficient compute and AI solutions, and the addition of Alphawave’s technologies will strengthen our platforms and optimise performance for next-generation AI data centres.”

Earlier this month, Qualcomm announced its acquisition of Ventana Micro Systems.

The acquisition is expected to support Qualcomm’s work on the RISC-V standard and ecosystem, and to enhance its CPU capabilities by adding Ventana’s expertise in RISC-V ISA development.

Ventana’s team is expected to work alongside Qualcomm’s existing RISC-V initiatives and its custom Oryon CPU development, with the aim of advancing AI-related technology across the company’s businesses.

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