Amy Thomson
Updated 2 min read
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(Bloomberg) — Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) has agreed to buy London-listed semiconductor company Alphawave (AWEVF) IP Group Plc for about $2.4 billion in cash to expand its technology for artificial intelligence.
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The offer equates to about 183 pence per share for Alphawave, the companies said in a statement on Monday. That’s a 96% premium to the company’s share price on March 31, the last trading day before Alphawave and Qualcomm disclosed the talks. The deal, which is still subject to regulatory and shareholder approval, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2026.
Qualcomm Chief Executive Officer Cristiano Amon is looking to lessen the company’s reliance on the smartphone market, where growth has slowed, and push into new areas. Alphawave makes high-speed semiconductor and connectivity technology that can be used for data centers and AI applications, two growth areas in the chip industry that are being driven by demand for products like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Alphawave’s board has unanimously recommended the cash offer. Investors representing 75% of shares must vote in favor of the deal for it to go through. Alphawave shareholders and directors representing about 50% of shares have agreed to vote in favor of the deal, the company said.
Alphawave shares rose 23% to 183.60 pence at 8:53 a.m. in London. The shares have risen about 117% this year.
Alphawave, which held an initial public offering in 2021 at 410 pence per share, has consistently traded below that level. The company had struggled with a reliance on large customers and navigating geopolitical tensions between the US and China, where Alphawave decided to cut back its business last year.
Still, the company’s technology has been gaining traction and had reported a surge in orders in the fourth quarter. Chief Executive Officer Tony Pialis said in a statement at the time that orders from North American AI customers were driving the business.
As an alternative to the cash offer, Alphawave shareholders can also opt to exchange their stock for 0.01662 shares of Qualcomm. Qualcomm has also said that each Alphawave share could be exchanged for 0.00964 of a new “series A Qualcomm exchangeable security” and 0.00698 of a new “series B Qualcomm exchangeable security.”
