Qualcomm Acquires Alphawave Semi in $2.4B Deal Amid Data Center Expansion

Qualcomm (QCOM) on Monday announced a deal to acquire British firm Alphawave Semi as the chipmaker looks to expand its push into the world of data centers.

Alphawave makes “high-speed wired connectivity and compute technologies delivering IP, custom silicon, connectivity products and chiplets,” per the Monday press release. The British company’s tech is used in data centers, which are increasingly being used to train artificial intelligence products.

The deal values Alphawave at about $2.4 billion, and the announcement sent Alphawave shares, listed in London, up nearly 25% to their highest point since March 2024. The move is a smaller jump than the company received back in April, when Qualcomm was reported to be interested in acquiring it and shares surged 46% in one day. Qualcomm shares were up about 1% in premarket trading.

Qualcomm said the deal “aims to further accelerate, and provide key assets for, Qualcomm’s expansion into data centers,” and said it is expected to close in the first quarter of 2026.

In its latest quarterly report on the last day of April, Qualcomm topped fiscal second quarter estimates as its chip business for smartphones grew 12% year-over-year, but its revenue forecast for the current quarter came in just below analysts’ projections.