Alphawave Wiki

Alphawave Semi

Alphawave Semi (formerly Alphawave IP Group) is a London-listed (LSE: AWE) and Toronto-headquartered fabless semiconductor company specializing in high-speed wired connectivity, compute silicon, and chiplet-based solutions. Founded in 2017, the company is rapidly becoming a critical provider of silicon IP and custom ASICs for data centers, AI infrastructure, networking, 5G, storage, and autonomous vehicle markets

🔹 Company Snapshot

🛠️ Products & Solutions

Silicon IP

Alphawave Semi offers a broad connectivity IP portfolio including multi‑standard SerDes (1G–224 Gbit/s PAM4/NRZ), PCI‑Express (1.0–6.0), CXL 3.0 controllers, Ethernet MACs (up to 800 GbE), HBM3/2E memory interfaces, LPDDR5/4x, and UCIe die‑to‑die (D2D) chiplet interconnect frameworks

Chiplets & Connectivity Products

The company also builds chiplet-based solutions and full-featured connectivity firmware/IP platforms optimized for 2.5D/3D advanced packaging technologies such as TSMC CoWoS and inFO_oS

Custom Silicon (ASIC/SoC)

Through its acquisition of OpenFive (March 2022, approx. $210M), Alphawave provides end-to-end custom silicon design services—from specification to silicon production—supporting advanced nodes down to TSMC 3nm/4nm and composable SoC flows

🌍 Market & Customers

Alphawave serves major hyperscalers and tier-one semiconductor/system companies worldwide. Its technology supports applications in:

• Hyperscale data centers and AI infrastructure

• 5G network base stations

• Data networking and storage systems

• Autonomous vehicles and sensor fusion devices

As of FY 2023, the company reported 103 revenue-generating customers and recorded ~$384M in bookings with strong double-digit growth year-on-year

📚 Business Model & Financials

• Revenue streams include up-front licensing/NRE for IP and custom silicon, and recurring royalties or chip shipments for deployed designs

• As of Q1 2025: still unprofitable, heavily investing in R&D and growth

• Aim to reach $1B revenue by 2027, with expected profitability and positive cash flow in early 2026

• Experienced significant share price decline (~£3.1B at IPO to ~£800M by 2025), with financial scrutiny after investor skepticism and short-selling pressure

🤝 Strategic Moves & Partnerships

• Acquisition of OpenFive (March 2022)—boosted custom silicon and chiplet capabilities

• OEM deal with Siemens EDA to embed Alphawave IP through Siemens’s global channel for Ethernet, PCIe, CXL, and UCIe IP sales

• Separate acquisitions (e.g. Banias for coherent optics IP) to support next-gen connectivity and hyperscale customers

🎯 Strategic Vision

Alphawave’s strategy centers on:

• Leading-edge innovation in low-power, high-speed connectivity IP and chiplet integration

• Scaling custom silicon services to hyperscalers and major OEMs

• Expanding its total addressable market—from ~$2B IP opportunity to > $50B via full SoC engagements by 2027

• Vertical integration across IP, custom ASIC, chiplet architecture, and advanced packaging—enabling speed, power, area, and performance optimization

🏁 Qualcomm Acquisition

In June 2025, Qualcomm announced a binding offer to acquire Alphawave Semi for approximately $2.4 billion USD (about £1.8 billion). The deal is expected to close in Q1 2026, expanding Qualcomm’s footprint in the data center and AI silicon infrastructure markets

Alphawave Semi represents a next-gen vertical semiconductor innovator—integrating IP design, custom SoC development, and chiplet integration to power the hyperconnected digital infrastructure that defines modern data centers, AI systems, and high-performance compute platforms.