Qualcomm, a leading global semiconductor company, has announced that it will diversify into data centres through its proposed acquisition of chip designer Alphawave.
Its chief executive officer, Cristiano Amon, announced this in the company’s fiscal third-quarter results (released on Wednesday), which ended on June 29, 2025.
Mr Amon said the acquisition represented a logical extension of Qualcomm’s diversification strategy.
“We continue to demonstrate leadership in Neural Processing Unit efficiency and Central Processing Unit performance,” Mr Amon said.
He stated that the Alphawave acquisition would complement Qualcomm’s Orion CPU and Hexagon NPU processors, accelerating its roadmap in the data centre sector.
Mr Amon noted that Qualcomm’s expansion into the data centre segment was still in its nascent stages but confirmed engagements with multiple potential customers and advanced discussions with a prominent hyperscaler.
He added that if these discussions materialised, Qualcomm anticipated revenues from the data centre sector to commence around the fiscal year 2028.
Mr Amon also highlighted a new market dynamic, emphasising efficiency in “tokens-per-dollar” and energy consumption, which Qualcomm viewed as significant opportunities.
“We are developing accelerator cards and plan to build full racks, with Alphawaves IP providing essential capabilities for scaling out and ensuring connectivity. The acquisition is expected to be finalised in the early months of 2026,” he said.
Speaking about its earnings, the company reported a 10 per cent year-over-year increase in Q3 revenue, reaching $10.3 billion. The report noted that net income rose to $2.6 billion, up from $2.1 billion in the same period last year.
The company reported that revenue from its equipment and services segment grew by 11 per cent to $8.8 billion, while licensing revenue increased by 5.1 per cent to $1.4 billion.
“Qualcomm’s handset chip business generated $6.3 billion in revenue, a seven per cent increase, though slightly below Wall Street’s expectations of $6.4 billion.
“Revenue from chips utilised in vehicles rose by 21 per cent to $984 million, and internet-of-things connected-device revenue increased by 24 per cent to $1.6 billion,” the company said.
Commenting, Akash Palkhiwala, the chief financial officer of Qualcomm, attributed the IoT revenue growth to increased demand for Qualcomm’s AR1 chipset.
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