Qualcomm (QCOM) has agreed to acquire Modular, an AI infrastructure software company, in a deal Bloomberg reported values the startup at around $4 billion. The transaction price was not officially confirmed by Qualcomm.
QCOM stock was up 1.1% in premarket trading on Wednesday after dropping 8% the session before. The stock has climbed 57% over the past three months.
Modular was founded in 2022 and has raised $380 million in total funding, including a $250 million round in September 2025. That round valued the company at $1.6 billion — making the reported $4 billion acquisition price a more than 2.5x jump in under a year.
Qualcomm said the deal is expected to close in the second half of 2026.
Modular builds software that lets developers and companies run AI models efficiently across different types of hardware. That cross-hardware capability is a key part of what Qualcomm is after here.
“The acquisition is expected to strengthen Qualcomm Technologies’ ability to deliver a more optimized AI compute layer across a broad range of platforms and use cases,” Qualcomm said in a statement.
The company added that it “deepens the software foundation for Qualcomm Technologies’ data center strategy.”
Qualcomm has been pushing hard into data centers as it looks to reduce its reliance on the smartphone chip market, which can be volatile.
Moor Insights & Strategy analyst Patrick Moorhead weighed in on the deal, noting the distinction between what Qualcomm already does well and what Modular brings.
“Qualcomm is very good at edge enabling software, but that’s not the same as data center software capability,” Moorhead said. “Strategically, this could help to better answer the data center question.”
That’s a fair point. Qualcomm has been building its AI chip credentials on the edge side — phones, PCs, cars — but the data center is a different game, and Modular helps fill that gap.
Wednesday also brought Qualcomm’s investor day, a closely watched event where the company was expected to reveal the identity of a major data center chip customer.
Details on Qualcomm’s next-generation processor plans were also on the agenda, adding more fuel to investor interest around the stock.
Separately, Qualcomm is reportedly in talks to acquire AI chip startup Tenstorrent in a deal valued at $8 billion to $10 billion, according to The Information. That deal has not been confirmed.
The Modular transaction terms remain undisclosed by Qualcomm, which declined to comment on pricing when contacted by Barron’s.
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