A visitor stands at a Qualcomm kiosk at the Bharat Mandapam, one of the venues for the AI Impact Summit, on February 18, 2026 in New Delhi, India.
Barwika Chhabra | Reuters
Qualcomm announced Wednesday that it will acquire infrastructure startup Modular to boost its artificial intelligence software capabilities as data center construction progresses.
This partnership strengthens Qualcomm’s position in the inference market and enables enterprises to run AI more efficiently.
“We believe the future belongs to developer-friendly horizontal platforms that can run across diverse computing environments and give customers real choice in how and where they deploy AI,” Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said in a release.
The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2026.
Qualcomm did not disclose the financials of the transaction. Bloomberg reported earlier this week that Qualcomm and Modular were in advanced negotiations for a deal worth nearly $4 billion.
Reuters calculations put the purchase price at $3.92 billion.
With rising token costs and straining corporate budgets, companies are looking for ways to optimize their use of AI.
At the same time, Qualcomm is looking to expand its position in the data center market as the rapid growth of AI increases the demand for infrastructure that can handle large amounts of data.
The company will hold an investor day on Wednesday.
Tune in at 3:30 PM ET when Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon appears on CNBC TV to discuss the acquisition and other news from the company’s investor day. Watch in real time on CNBC+ or CNBC Pro streams.
