Qualcomm (QCOM) Stock Falls as $4 Billion Modular Acquisition Talks Emerge

TLDR

• Qualcomm stock fell 1.86% on Monday to $221.90, dropping a further 0.72% in after-hours trading
• Qualcomm is in advanced talks to acquire AI developer platform Modular Inc. for around $4 billion
• Modular was last valued at $1.6 billion after a $250 million funding round in September 2024
• An announcement is expected in the coming weeks
• The deal follows separate reports that Qualcomm is also in talks to buy AI chip startup Tenstorrent for $8–10 billion

Qualcomm has had a strong run lately. The stock is up 72% over the past three months as investors bet big on its AI ambitions ahead of an investor day on Wednesday.

QUALCOMM Incorporated, QCOM

That momentum hit a wall Monday. QCOM closed down 1.86% at $221.90, then fell a further 0.72% in after-hours trading as a broad tech selloff weighed on markets.

The drop came even as Bloomberg reported that Qualcomm is in advanced talks to acquire Modular Inc., an AI developer platform startup, for around $4 billion. A deal announcement is expected in the coming weeks.

Modular was founded in 2022 by Chris Lattner and Tim Davis, two former Google engineers who said they were frustrated by the fragmented state of AI infrastructure. The company builds software that helps developers deploy AI models across different hardware and cloud platforms through a single unified framework.

That’s not a small problem to solve. Getting AI to run efficiently across different chips and systems is a real pain point for developers, and Modular has positioned itself squarely in the middle of it.

A Startup That Grew Fast

Modular’s valuation tells its own story. The company raised $250 million in a funding round in September 2024 at a valuation of $1.6 billion. The reported $4 billion deal price would represent a more than 2.5x jump in under two years.

Neither Qualcomm nor Modular responded to requests for comment.

Qualcomm’s Bigger Acquisition Push

The Modular talks don’t exist in isolation. Just days before the Bloomberg report, The Information reported that Qualcomm is also in talks to acquire AI chip startup Tenstorrent for between $8 billion and $10 billion.

If both deals go through, Qualcomm would be making a substantial push into AI — covering both the hardware side with Tenstorrent and the software infrastructure side with Modular.

Investors have been looking ahead to Qualcomm’s investor day on Wednesday for more detail. The company is expected to reveal the identity of a major customer for a custom data-center chip and outline its next-generation processor roadmap.

Qualcomm’s momentum score sits in the 89th percentile according to Benzinga Edge rankings, with a growth score in the 43rd percentile.

QCOM closed at $221.90 on Monday.

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