Qualcomm Eyes British Chip Designer Alphawave After Arm Passes On It: Retail Sentiment Flips To Extremely Bullish

Shares of Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) will be in focus as markets open on Friday amid reports that the company is eyeing the acquisition of British chip designer Alphawave.

According to a Bloomberg report, Qualcomm has time till April 29 to comply with the UK’s acquisition rules.

Alphawave is a London-based chip designer that specializes in designing semiconductors for use in data centers, networking, and storage.

Qualcomm’s acquisition bid for Alphawave coincides with the artificial intelligence-led (AI) boom in data center buildouts around the world.

Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang forecasted that data center buildouts could be a $1 trillion opportunity by 2028, which explains the immense potential that semiconductor giants see in this sector.

While the exact details of Qualcomm’s acquisition offer for Alphawave are not known yet, the bid comes after Arm Holdings Plc. (ARM) passed on the opportunity.

Notably, Qualcomm and Arm are currently engaged in a bitter battle over licensing and anti-trust issues.

After Arm failed in its bid to terminate one of the key licenses held by Qualcomm, the latter reportedly filed an anti-trust complaint with several key regulators around the world, including the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

Qualcomm also announced the acquisition of the generative AI division of VinAI on Tuesday in order to boost its own capabilities.

Retail sentiment on Stocktwits around Qualcomm flipped to ‘extremely bullish’ (80/100) from ‘bearish’ a day ago.

QCOM sentiment and message volume April 3, 2025, as of 11 pm ET | Source: Stocktwits

One bullish user thinks that any investor selling Qualcomm shares below their 200-day moving average (DMA) is “literally giving them away.”

Data from Koyfin shows the average price target for Qualcomm is $197.93, implying a 42% upside from Thursday’s closing price.

Of the 35 analysts covering the stock, there are 17 ‘Buy’ or ‘Strong Buy’ ratings, 17 ‘Hold’ recommendations, while one suggests investors to ‘Sell.’

Qualcomm’s stock has declined 9% year-to-date.

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