‘Backed by Silver Lake’s strong track record and now with clarity of focus as an independent company, Altera is well-positioned to build on its momentum and deliver breakthrough FPGA-based solutions that are shaping the future of compute driven by AI,’ says new Altera CEO Raghib Hussain.
The deal values Altera, which is Intel’s programmable chip business, at $8.75 billion. This represents roughly half of the $16.7 billion price tag Intel acquired Altera for in 2015.
Intel will own the remaining 49 percent of its Altera business after the deal is complete.
“Today’s announcement reflects our commitment to sharpening our focus, lowering our expense structure and strengthening our balance sheet,” said Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan in a statement. “Altera continues to make progress repositioning its product portfolio to participate in the fastest growing and most profitable segments of the FPGA [field programmable gate array] market.”
[Related: Altera CEO Says Intel’s IPO Plan For FPGA Unit ‘Has Not Changed’]
Intel has taken steps to spin Altera out as a separate unit, previously saying in 2024 that it would sell a portion of its stake in the FPGA provider.
Altera makes programmable chips that can be used for various purposes from telecom equipment to military. Its portfolio of programmable semiconductor offerings, software and development tools aim to deliver reliability and flexibility to customers’ FPGA environment.
In 2024, Altera generated total sales of $1.54 billion with an operating loss of $615 million.
The deal is expected to close during the second half of 2025.
Hussain Is Altera’s Next CEO
Intel also said Monday that Hussain will succeed Altera CEO Sandra Rivera as CEO of Altera, effective May 5.
Hussain was previously president of products and technologies at Marvell.
Prior to joining Marvell in 2018, Hussain was co-founder and COO of Cavium. He has also held top engineering roles at Cisco Systems and Cadence, while also being the founder of enterprise security company VPNet.
Hussain said in a statement that he was excited to take Altera into its next chapter of becoming “the world’s No. 1 FPGA solutions provider.”
“Backed by Silver Lake’s strong track record and now with clarity of focus as an independent company, Altera is well-positioned to build on its momentum and deliver breakthrough FPGA-based solutions that are shaping the future of compute driven by AI,” said Hussain.
Intel’s CEO touted Hussain as “a superb executive we selected to lead the business forward based on his vast industry experience” and proven track record.
“We are grateful for Sandra’s strong leadership and lasting impact throughout her 25-year Intel career and wish her continued success as she begins a new chapter,” said Tan.
