Qualcomm Technologies is expected to pay US$1.4 billion for the company, less working capital and adjustments. Reacting to the news on Wednesday, the firm's share price increased 1.5%, closing trading that day at $133.65 a piece
The deal will reduce Qualcomm's dependence on ARM, which itself is facing a $40 billion takeover from Nvidia Corp. ARM's chip is currently used in the Snapdragon™ platforms.
The takeover was first announced in January and the first Qualcomm Snapdragon™ platforms to feature Qualcomm Technologies’ new internally designed CPUs, for high performance ultraportable laptops, are expected to sample in H2 of next year.
“The world-class NUVIA team enhances our CPU roadmap, extending Qualcomm’s leading technology position with the Windows, Android and Chrome ecosystems,” said Cristiano Amon (pictured), president and CEO-elect at Qualcomm Incorporated.
“The broad support of this acquisition from across industries validates the opportunity we have to provide differentiated products with leading CPU performance and power efficiency, as on-demand computing increases in the 5G era.”
NUVIA was founded by three Apple engineers in 2019 – John Bruno, Manu Gulati and Gerard Williams – and caters to the US systems-on-a-chip market and advanced computing platforms. It specialises in next-gen custom CPUs and in its series B funding round in September 2020, it raised $240 million.
Completing the takeover, its CEO Gerard Williams has been appointed SVP of engineering at Qualcomm Technologies.
Williams said: “We are excited to join the leading wireless innovator in the industry, driven by a common mission of inventing breakthrough technologies. Together, we will create a new class of high-performance computing platforms that set the bar for the industry.”
Qualcomm Technologies said it expected to integrate next generation CPUs across "a wide portfolio of products, including powering flagship smartphones, laptops, and digital cockpits, as well as Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, extended reality, and infrastructure networking solutions".
As recently as January former top executives from Qualcomm, former CEO Paul Jacobs and CTO Matt Grob, were headhunted by 5G-on-a-chip start-up EdgeQ.
