South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix received over $26 billion in proceeds from its U.S. listing in July, while other AI-related firms such as data center developer SB Energy have also sought to tap investor demand through IPOs.
Although Altera is not a pure-play AI chipmaker, it is seeking to position its programmable chips as complementary to graphics processing units in data centers, where they can handle networking, data processing and some AI inference workloads.
The prospective revenue from "hyperscalers" spending heavily on AI infrastructure will be closely watched.
"Whether hyperscalers remain a material part of Altera’s customer base today will be an important point for investors once the public filing comes out," Lukas Muehlbauer, a research associate at IPOX, said.
Altera confidentially files for a U.S. IPO
Altera said on Tuesday it has confidentially filed for a U.S. initial public offering, making the Silver Lake- and Intel-backed chipmaker the latest semiconductor firm seeking to tap investor appetite for AI-related businesses.
San Jose, California-based Altera makes programmable chips used in data centers, telecommunications networks, industrial equipment, AI applications and aerospace and defense systems.
Reuters had reported last week that the firm was preparing for an offering that could raise over $2 billion as early as this year, citing people familiar with the matter.
At that size, Altera's offering would mark one of the largest semiconductor listings since chip designer Arm Holdings raised $5 billion in 2023 and Cerebras raised $5.55 billion in May.
Intel retains a stake as Altera eyes public markets
Altera, which Intel bought for about $16.7 billion in 2015, became fully standalone last September after Silver Lake acquired a 51% stake for $4.46 billion in a deal that valued it at $8.75 billion. Intel retains a 49% stake.
The firm's CEO, Raghib Hussain, told Reuters in a July interview that Altera was expecting growth in the mid-20% range this year.
Its ambitions to go public come as the U.S. IPO market picks up steam after a summer lull. High-profile listings, including SpaceX's $75 billion offering, and the anticipated IPO of Anthropic have added momentum to the market.
Total proceeds have surpassed $145 billion this year, according to data from Renaissance Capital, a provider of IPO-focused research and ETFs.
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