Qualcomm inked a deal to buy chip start-up Nuvia for $1.4 billion, aiming to strengthen its Snapdragon platform with the company’s high-performance, energy-efficient CPU technology.

Founded in 2019 by former Apple and Google executives, Nuvia focused on designing silicon for data centres. But Qualcomm said it plans to incorporate Nuvia’s CPUs across its portfolio, using them in smartphones, laptops, automotive and infrastructure products.

Nuvia founders Gerard Williams, Manu Gulati and John Bruno will join Qualcomm, along with other leading executives and staff.

In a statement, Qualcomm president Cristiano Amon hailed Nuvia’s team as “proven innovators”, stating “together, we are very well positioned to redefine computing and enable our ecosystem of partners to drive innovation and deliver a new class of products and experiences for the 5G era”.

The company highlighted backing for the move from Microsoft, Google, Samsung, OnePlus, Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi, Lenovo, HP, General Motors and Renault, among others.

Google SVP of platforms and ecosystems Hiroshi Lockheimer noted the deal will expand Qualcomm’s capabilities in “compute performance, connectivity and power efficiency”, elements he stated “are critical ingredients that make the billions of Android and Chrome OS devices shine”.

In a tweet, research director and senior analyst at Futurum Research Olivier Blanchard stated history would likely show the acquisition “as an inflection point” for Qualcomm’s CPU capabilities.