Kelsey Ziser, Senior Editor
April 1, 2025
2 Min Read
People taking photos of an AI experience at the MWC Barcelona trade show.(Source: GSMA)
Chip suppliers Qualcomm and Arm have both had their eyes on an acquisition of Alphawave, a UK-based supplier of semiconductor intellectual property, reported Reuters.
Qualcomm will decide by April 29, per the UK's acquisition rules, whether it will make an offer to acquire Alphawave whose semiconductor technology has both data center and AI applications, said Bloomberg. Meanwhile, sources told Reuters that Arm has withdrawn interest in acquiring Alphawave.
Arm set its sights on Alphawave to obtain key technology for building its own AI processors, said Reuters. As a result of Arm's interest, Alphawave reached out to its investment bankers to look into a potential deal. Alphawave's shares closed at 93.5 pence ($1.21 US dollars) on Monday, bringing the company's valuation to about 707 million pounds ($914 million).
But, sources told Reuters that Arm has decided not to pursue the acquisition after initial discussions with Alphawave. Arm was initially interested in obtaining Alphawave's serializer-deserializer (SerDes) technology, which controls the speed at which information can go on and off a chip, thereby making AI applications in everything from smartphones to data centers operate more smoothly.
"The tech is one of the competitive advantages Broadcomboasts, which has helped it win AI chip customers such as Alphabet's Google and OpenAI," explained Reuters.
Related:MWC 2025 preview: AI on smartphones is a tough sell
The AI angle
Qualcomm, a major chipset supplier in the smartphone industry, may be interested in Alphawave due to the rise of AI features in smartphones. Smartphone giants like Samsung, Google and Apple all have their own flavor of AI tools on their latest smartphone models. China's major smartphone vendors have been heavily focused on developing AI on smartphones as well. For example, Oppo's AI eraser tool for photo editing, are among the AI features growing in popularity in China.
However, research firm Canalys previously told Light Reading that consumer interest in AI on smartphones varies widely by region. After all, there are still some kinks in AI tools – Apple for example disabled Apple Intelligence summaries of notifications from news and entertainment apps in January when the software was relaying incorrect information.
A possible obstacle to Qualcomm's potential acquisition of Alphawave is Alphawave's ties to China via its joint venture with WiseWave, which operates within Chinese investment firm Wise Road Capital. American officials placedWiseWave on a US blacklist due to national security concerns last year, said Reuters.
In all, it's shaping up to be a busy week for Qualcomm in the AI space. On Tuesday the chip supplier announced plans to acquire MovianAI Artificial Intelligence (AI) Application and Research JSC (MovianAI), which was formerly the GenAI division of VinAI Application and Research JSC (VinAI) and a part of Vingroup. Qualcomm said the deal would strengthen its GenAI research and development capabilities and "expedite the creation of advanced AI solutions for products like smartphones, PCs, software-defined vehicles, and more." AI research company VinAI focuses on the development of GenAI, ML, computer vision and natural language processing.
