Qualcomm is a multinational corporation which designs and manufactures semiconductors and wireless telecommunications products. Its main three business units are: Qualcomm CDMA Technologies (QCT), Qualcomm Technology Licensing (QLT) and Qualcomm Strategic Initiatives (QSI). Their range of product includes processors, modems, RF systems, connectivity solutions, etc. Qualcomm was founded in July, 1985.
On the other hand, Nuvia is a company which was founded in 2019. They create high performance silicon design for a compute-intensive world. They design processing chipsets for data centre servers and processors. They have proven to design world-class high speed and high performance processors.
Qualcomm just bought the two year old start-up Nuvia for $1.4 Billion. It is huge news and the company is focusing on building next-generation CPUs for use in data centres, mobiles and other devices. 5G is further accelerating the convergence of mobility and computing. This acquisition builds Qualcomm Technologies’ Snapdragon technology leadership, delivering step-function improvements in CPU performance and more power efficiency to meet the demands of the next generation computing.
The huge craze among the news is because the start-up company Nuvia is just 2 years old and Qualcomm acquired it for $1.4 Billion. It is definitely shocking news. Nuvia CPUs are expected to be integrated across the products of Qualcomm. Let that be smartphones, next-generation laptops and digital cockpits. As a part of the acquisition, the founders of Nuvia, Gerard Williams III, Manu Gulati and John Bruno along with their employees will be joining Qualcomm.
Qualcomm is going to use the talent and technology that this company has to offer. It is going to make significant changes in the chip market. Qualcomm has spent most of its last decade to build their own internal chip design and to not rely on other third party companies. They built their company to integrate better software and hardware. Nuvia’s co-founders gained expertise not just at Apple but even Amazon, Google, Facebook and others too.
All these companies are trying to build their own data chips. While Apple cut a deal with Qualcomm to continue using Qualcomm modems for its products. Apple is reportedly working hard to build its own cellular modems. This is where companies like Nuvia come in.
It is a business strategy of most companies to acquire start-ups. They use their team of innovative workers and their resources to help their own company grow.