Qualcomm agrees €2.1bn deal for semiconductor firm Alphawave

Qualcomm has agreed to buy London-listed semiconductor company Alphawave IP Group Plc for about $2.4bn (€2.1bn) to expand its technology for artificial intelligence. 

Qualcomm has agreed to buy London-listed semiconductor company Alphawave IP Group Plc for about $2.4bn (€2.1bn) to expand its technology for artificial intelligence.

The offer equates to about 183p per share for Alphawave, Qualcomm said in a statement on Monday. Alphawave shareholders can also opt to exchange their stock for 0.01662 shares of Qualcomm. The Alphawave board has unanimously recommended the deal.

The company makes high-speed semiconductor and connectivity technology that can be used for data centres and AI applications, two growth areas in the chip industry that are being driven by demand for products like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Alphawave, which held an initial public offering in 2021 at 410p per share, has consistently traded below that level.

Qualcomm has a large presence in Ireland with a research and development facility in Cork, employing more than 450 people.

Qualcomm had initially said it was considering an offer in April and the companies have been in talks since then.

Alphawave shares rose 2.9% to close at 149.2p on Friday. The shares had closed at 93.5p on March 31, the day before Qualcomm and Alphawave disclosed their talks.

Meanwhile US quantum computing company IonQ has agreed to buy UK startup Oxford Ionics in a $1.08bn (€940m) deal that highlights increasing commercial confidence in what has largely been an experimental field of computing.

The takeover, which consists of roughly $1.07bn in shares of IonQ and about $10m in cash, will bring together Maryland-based IonQ’s quantum hardware and software capabilities with Oxford Ionics’ quantum chip technology, the companies said in a statement on Monday. The transaction is expected to close in 2025, subject to regulatory approvals.

Bloomberg