Competition in the market for AI data center CPUs is intensifying further with Qualcomm’s $2.4 billion acquisition of AlphaWave, a UK semiconductor firm specializing in building blocks for integration into custom designed chips. Qualcomm says this technology, rooted in IP (Intellectual Property), complements its existing CPUs and also NPUs (Neural Processing Units), which can be dedicated either to AI training or inferencing. Certainly, Qualcomm has been quick to follow up on its announcement on May 19th 2025, of plans to launch processors for AI-optimized data centers with links to Nvidia’s GPUs. The latter is a common thread in AI data center chip design, since Nvidia’s GPUs have become pivotal for training LLMs (Large Language Models). Qualcomm may have decided that…