San Jose, California — Altera, the semiconductor company owned by Intel and private equity firm Silver Lake, has confidentially submitted paperwork for a U.S. initial public offering as the chip industry looks to benefit from sustained investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence.
The San Jose, California-based company produces programmable chips used across data centers, telecommunications networks, industrial equipment, AI applications, and aerospace and defense systems.
The confidential filing follows a Reuters report last week that Altera was preparing for an IPO that could raise more than $2 billion as early as this year.
If it reaches that size, the offering would rank among the largest semiconductor IPOs in recent years. Arm Holdings raised $5 billion through its 2023 listing, while Cerebras raised $5.55 billion in May.
SK Hynix generated more than $26 billion through its U.S. listing in July. Other businesses tied to the expanding AI infrastructure market have also been moving toward public listings.
Although Altera is not solely focused on AI chips, the company has marketed its programmable semiconductors as complementary to the graphics processing units widely used in data centers. Its products support networking, data processing, and some AI inference workloads.
Investors are expected to pay close attention to Altera’s exposure to the AI infrastructure market once details of its public filing are released.
A key issue will be whether large cloud computing companies, often referred to as hyperscalers, continue to account for a significant share of Altera’s customers.
Lukas Muehlbauer, a research associate at IPOX, said the role of hyperscalers within Altera’s existing customer base would be an important consideration for investors.
Altera’s ownership structure has undergone major changes in recent years. Intel acquired the company for about $16.7 billion in 2015.
Last September, Altera became an independent company after Silver Lake bought a 51% stake for $4.46 billion in a deal that valued the business at $8.75 billion. Intel maintained ownership of the remaining 49%.
Chief Executive Officer Raghib Hussain told Reuters in July that Altera expected revenue to grow in the mid-20% range this year.
The filing comes as the U.S. IPO market enters a stronger period following a summer slowdown. Several prominent transactions have helped restore investor appetite for new listings.
SpaceX’s $75 billion offering and the expected IPO of AI company Anthropic have contributed to the renewed momentum.
According to Renaissance Capital, which focuses on IPO research and exchange-traded funds, total U.S. IPO proceeds have exceeded $145 billion this year.
For Altera, the planned listing could provide access to renewed investor demand while offering the market another opportunity to invest in semiconductor infrastructure tied to the continued expansion of AI.
Because the filing was submitted confidentially, important details about the proposed IPO, including its eventual size and valuation, have not yet been disclosed publicly.
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