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US semiconductor group Qualcomm has agreed a $2.4bn deal to buy chip designer Alphawave, marking the latest tech company departure from the London market.
The companies’ boards said Qualcomm’s cash offer represented a price of 183p per Alphawave share, a 96 per cent premium to the closing price on March 31, the last trading day before Qualcomm announced its bid. They said the deal valued Alphawave at $2.4bn, less than half the valuation at which it went public just over four years ago.
Alphawave’s shares jumped 22 per cent in early trading on Monday to 182p.
The deal will advance Qualcomm’s ambitions in artificial intelligence by expanding its intellectual property portfolio in data centre and 5G networking, at a time when big tech companies are spending hundreds of billions of dollars on AI infrastructure.
Qualcomm’s chief executive Cristiano Amon said the two companies “share the goal of building advanced technology solutions and enabling next-level connected computing performance across a wide array of high growth areas, including data centre infrastructure”.
Alphawave said its directors would unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favour of the deal. Chief executive Tony Pialis said it would leave the UK company “well-positioned to expand our product offerings, reach a broader customer base and enhance our technological capabilities”.
The deal is expected to complete during the first calendar quarter of 2026. Alphawave shareholders can choose to accept the offer in cash or Qualcomm stock.
Alphawave, which licenses chip designs for high-speed connectivity, was founded in Canada and listed in London in 2021, the same year as food delivery group Deliveroo and cyber security company Darktrace.
When it went public in May 2021, Toronto-based Alphawave sold £856mn worth of shares at 410p to value the group at £3.1bn. Qualcomm’s offer is for less than half that figure at 183p per share.
By the time Qualcomm completes its takeover, all three companies are likely to have delisted, after Deliveroo agreed to sell to US rival DoorDash this year and Darktrace was bought by private equity group Thoma Bravo last year for $5.3bn.
Alphawave, which was heavily shorted before Qualcomm’s interest was revealed, said in April that it was unable to provide guidance for the year due to uncertainty over US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and warned that the “timing of customer programmes is currently uncertain”. As well as data centres, its technology is used in 5G infrastructure and autonomous vehicles.
Qualcomm, which generates most of its revenue from mobile chips and related royalties, reported strong growth in April for the first quarter of the year and said it did not expect a significant impact from tariffs. The company in March took a hit when Apple launched its first iPhone containing its own in-house modem, replacing a part that Qualcomm had historically supplied.
