The German Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) has approved Qualcomm Inc.’s planned acquisition of Alphawave IP Group plc, a UK-based developer of high-speed wired connectivity solutions used in advanced semiconductors.
Alphawave specializes in SerDes IP, an essential technology enabling ultra-fast data transmission within modern chips. These solutions are particularly important for data centers that support AI applications. Qualcomm, by contrast, has historically concentrated its semiconductor business on wireless cellular technologies used in mobile devices, vehicles, and IoT applications. In these segments, lower-speed SerDes IP is sufficient and a wide range of suppliers is available. Through the acquisition, Qualcomm aims to expand into the data center semiconductor market and compete directly with established players such as NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel.
According to Andreas Mundt, President of the Federal Cartel Office, the transaction did not raise competition concerns because Qualcomm has not been significantly active in semiconductors for data centers. Mundt noted that Qualcomm faces competition from substantially larger rivals and that customers in this market—primarily hyperscalers such as Meta, Google, and Amazon—possess significant buyer power. He further emphasized that rapid advances in artificial intelligence are driving demand for more powerful data centers and accelerating investment in key semiconductor technologies. In this environment of strong market dynamics, the competition authority’s role is to ensure that these fast-growing markets remain open and competitive.
The authority’s investigation found that Alphawave holds a strong position in the current generation of SerDes IP with transfer rates of 112 Gbit/s, where it competes closely with Synopsys. However, in the development of next-generation 224 Gbit/s SerDes technology, other providers are viewed by market participants as being at least on par with Alphawave. The Federal Cartel Office also took into account competitive pressure from companies that supply SerDes IP as part of tailored semiconductor solutions, including Broadcom, Marvell, and MediaTek.
Although both Qualcomm and Alphawave operate globally, the European Commission did not have jurisdiction over this merger due to the revenue-based allocation of responsibilities between EU and national competition authorities. The transaction was also notified simultaneously to competition authorities in the United States, Canada, and South Korea.