Reuters exclusively reported that chip tech provider Arm Holdings recently sought to buy UK-based Alphawave to secure a crucial technology for building its own artificial-intelligence processors. The story sent Alphawave shares up 21%, the biggest gain since September 2021, and flushed out a statement from Qualcomm that it was considering a bid for Alphawave. That fueled a total rise in Alphawave shares of 52%.

Why it matters

Arm approached Alphawave recently with the aim of acquiring its technology that determines how fast information can get onto and off a chip. Known as “serdes” – short for serializer-deserializer – the technology is crucial to making an AI chip that could stand out from rivals.