Qualcomm $QCOM agreed to acquire AI software startup Modular in an all-stock deal valued at $3.92 billion, the semiconductor company said Wednesday, as it works to expand beyond smartphone chips into data center and edge AI markets.
Equity holders of Modular will receive up to 19.2 million newly issued Qualcomm common shares through a private placement, according to the company. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals.
Modular builds software that allows AI models to run across different hardware architectures — including chips from multiple vendors — without requiring developers to rewrite code for each processor. The platform supports CPU, GPU, NPU, and custom chip architectures, the company said.
Qualcomm said the acquisition is intended to deepen its software capabilities for data center AI, supporting inference, orchestration, and deployment across distributed systems. It also positions the chipmaker to attract developers, cloud service providers, and model creators who want hardware flexibility.
"As agentic AI scales across data centers and edge environments, the industry is moving toward disaggregated, multi-vendor architectures that demand a more open and modern software foundation," Qualcomm President and CEO Cristiano Amon said in a statement.
Modular co-founder and CEO Chris Lattner said the deal gives his company the scale to advance its mission. "Joining Qualcomm gives us the scale and platform reach to accelerate that mission," Lattner said in a statement. "Together, we can make AI development more accessible and performant for developers."
The acquisition moves Qualcomm into territory long dominated by Nvidia $NVDA's CUDA platform, which has cemented developer loyalty to Nvidia's hardware, according to Reuters. Modular has positioned itself as a vendor-neutral software layer that supports Nvidia, AMD $AMD, and other chips.
The announcement came on the same day Qualcomm was scheduled to hold an investor day in New York, according to The Wall Street Journal. Smartphone chips remain the foundation of Qualcomm's business, and the company has been pursuing data center opportunities as a way to diversify, with dedicated AI processors for that market slated to ship before year's end.
Qualcomm stock was up about 1% in premarket trading Wednesday.