Intel said Monday it agreed to sell 51% of its Altera Semiconductor business to private equity company Silver Lake.
The deal, which values Altera at $8.75 billion, will make the division “operationally independent,” Intel said in a press release. The chipmaker will hold a 49% stake in Altera, led by Raghib Hussain, who will replace Sandra Rivera on May 5th.
“Today’s announcement reflects our commitment to sharpen our focus, lowering our cost structure and strengthening our balance sheet,” Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan said in a statement. “Altera continues to reposition its product portfolio to participate in the fastest and most profitable segments of the FPGA market.”
Altera was founded in 1983 by semiconductor veterans Rodney Smith, Robert Hartman, James Sandsbury and Paul Newhagen. The company develops a variety of programmable chips known as field programmable gate arrays, or FPGAS, as well as software to support them. The chip is used in industries such as communications, robotics, and AI.
Intel acquired Altera in 2015 for $16.7 billion, and set up a business unit called the Programmable Solutions Group (PSG) around it. In 2023, Intel said it would spin off PSG to another company while maintaining majority ownership, and intended to seek an IPO within three years.
The decision to spin out PSG came at the time of rapid growth in the FPGA sector. According to one analysis, the FPGA market could grow from $12.1 billion last year to $25.8 billion by 2029.
In 2024, Altera generated $1.54 billion in revenue.
The Silver Lake deal is expected to close in the second half of 2025.