Qualcomm's $2.4B Alphawave Acquisition, Meta's Nuclear Energy Deal, and CoreWeave's AI Expansion - Silicon Brief #21

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In this edition of Silicon Brief, we're diving into the latest developments in AI chips and data centers. CoreWeave has been making headlines with its appointment of Ernie Rogers as Chief Architect and its leasing of a 250MW AI data center to Applied Digital. Meanwhile, Microsoft is investing $400 million in Swiss AI and cloud infrastructure, and Brookfield is planning a massive $10 billion investment in a Swedish AI data center. These moves highlight the growing importance of AI infrastructure in the tech landscape.

On the hardware front, Xanadu has unveiled an error-resistant photonic qubit, and Speedata has secured $44 million to challenge Nvidia in the AI chip market. Additionally, Qualcomm is set to acquire Alphawave IP Group for $2.4 billion, signaling a significant shift in the semiconductor industry. These developments underscore the rapid advancements and investments being made in AI technology and infrastructure.

Meta has entered a 20-year agreement with Constellation Energy to utilize nuclear energy from the Clinton Clean Energy Center in Illinois for its AI and data centers. Heron Power, a startup founded by a former Tesla executive, has secured $38 million in Series A funding to develop solid-state transformers, with initial installations planned for 2027.

GridFree AI, incubated by Montauk Climate, has introduced its Power Foundry™ platform to speed up data center deployments with grid-independent power solutions, securing $5 million in funding led by Giant Ventures. Ecolab Inc. launched the 3D TRASAR Technology for Direct-to-Chip Liquid Cooling, an AI-driven solution for real-time coolant health monitoring in data centers. Hudson Interxchange partnered with DDC Solutions to deploy the S-Series cooling platform at their New York City data center, supporting AI workloads for Cato Digital. LITEON Technology unveiled AI infrastructure solutions at the 2025 Datacloud Global Congress, focusing on energy management for AI computational demands.

A major data centre project in the UAE, involving Nvidia and OpenAI, is delayed due to security concerns related to UAE's ties with China.

CoreWeave has appointed Ernie Rogers as Chief Architect to bolster its AI cloud solutions, while TECfusions and Baeza Group plan Chile's largest data center. WhiteFiber Inc. acquired land in North Carolina for a $1 billion data center, and Applied Digital leased a 250MW AI data center to CoreWeave. Microsoft is investing $400 million in Swiss AI infrastructure, and US Signal is expanding data centers with a $200 million investment. CloudZero partners with AWS for AI cloud efficiency, and New Era Helium plans a Texas AI data center. DBS and UOB fund a $413 million Indonesian data center, while AWS launches AI Spring Australia. Siemens, Cadolto, and Legrand introduce a modular data center, and GreenScale acquires land in Norway for a new data center. Brookfield plans a $10 billion Swedish AI data center, Digital Edge and B.Grimm Power launch a Thai data center project, and Nvidia plans 100 AI factories globally.

Xanadu Quantum Technologies Inc. has unveiled error-resistant photonic qubits, advancing scalable quantum computing. VDURA launched Data Platform V11.2 with V-ScaleFlow for AI and HPC workloads. Speedata raised $44 million to develop its analytics processing unit, challenging traditional GPUs. AI Pulse introduced GDePIN, a decentralised GPU compute model. Mixed-Signal Devices released a new timing and clock portfolio for high-speed systems. Mindbeam AI launched Litespark framework on AWS Marketplace using NVIDIA tech. CoreWeave, NVIDIA, and IBM set an MLPerf record with GB200 Superchips. Plug and Play partnered with Synopsys for chip design innovation. ROHM Semiconductor launched AI microcontrollers for anomaly detection. Arm Holdings Plc introduced the Zena Compute Subsystem for automotive AI. AMD acquired the team from Untether AI. Qualcomm agreed to acquire Alphawave IP Group for $2.4 billion.