Altera files for US IPO amid chip market rebound

Altera has filed confidentially for a US IPO that could arrive as soon as this year, adding another semiconductor name to a busy listings market. The Intel-backed company makes programmable semiconductors used in telecoms, industrial automation, defense systems and data centers, where its chips can complement central GPUs.

The planned debut follows a volatile stretch for Altera. Intel acquired the company for $16.7 billion in pre-ChatGPT 2015, but the unit later lost hundreds of millions of dollars. Last year, Intel sold a 51% stake to Silver Lake at half that valuation. Altera is now seeking to raise $2 billion in its IPO, according to Reuters, which would make it one of the largest recent US semiconductor listings behind Arm’s $5 billion debut in 2023 and Cerebras’ $5.5 billion debut in May.

Altera is presenting itself as a beneficiary of AI-related capital spending. CEO Raghib Hussain told Reuters in July that revenue is expected to grow by more than 20% for the second straight year and that operating income has more than doubled. In its last year with Intel in 2024, Altera’s revenue fell 48% to $1.5 billion.

The filing lands during a broader IPO revival, with more than $160 billion raised for US IPOs so far this year excluding SPAC launches, according to Bloomberg data. SpaceX accounted for $85 billion of that total, while 331 companies have filed for IPOs and 280 have completed debuts, according to Wall Street Horizon data through September 8.