Qualcomm Acquires Arduino: What It Means for IoT and Edge AI

Qualcomm’s acquisition of Arduino marks a major milestone in the evolution of IoT and edge AI. Beyond the deal itself, the companies unveiled two new products and platforms: the Arduino UNO Q, powered by Qualcomm’s Dragonwing™ QRB2210 edge AI processor (MPU) and a new integrated development environment called the Arduino App Lab). The Arduino UNO Q will be available in the coming weeks, priced at €39 / $44 for the version with 2GB RAM and €53 / $59 for the model with 4GB RAM.

Why Arduino?

Taking a step back, for those less familiar with Arduino, it is an initiative born out of Italy’s research and innovation ecosystem. Together with its hardware partners, Arduino has made electronics programming intuitive, accessible and enjoyable. Today, Arduino is said to have a global community of over 32 million active developers, and a growing ecosystem of around 1,200 libraries of shared open-source code, expanding at a double-digit rate annually in recent years. Simply put, there are few electronics engineers or enthusiasts who haven’t worked with Arduino boards or its IDE (Integrated Development Environment). 

What does Qualcomm want to achieve? 

Qualcomm is a company deeply rooted in the mobile applications and connectivity ecosystem. As a pioneer in mobile connectivity modules, Qualcomm built a leading business in mobile computing, with handsets, particularly smartphones, serving as the company’s core market for many years. In 2021, Qualcomm outlined a diversification strategy that identified IoT (across industrial, enterprise and consumer segments) and automotive as two key pillars for future revenue growth. Today, these two segments represent 25% of Qualcomm’s total revenue, signalling that the company may be moving beyond its initial diversification phase and into a new era of growth and leadership. With the acquisition of Arduino, Qualcomm aims to further define and expand its presence in industrial IoT and edge AI, an opportunity space centred around machines, edge computing and connected IoT devices. This marks a blue ocean strategy, where Qualcomm is positioning itself to help shape and lead a new, yet largely unshaped market.

What is actually the edge AI opportunity

The edge AI opportunity spans a wide range of use cases: industrial IoT systems, robotics (both mobile and stationary, in service and industrial settings), drones, and potentially wearables and machine interfaces. The overarching goal is to enable workers and machines to benefit from edge AI (including generative AI) capabilities such as object detection, speech and gesture recognition, sound classification, real-time decision making, live interactions, remote monitoring and control.

What does the acquisition of Arduino mean for Qualcomm?

• A shift beyond silicon towards software: Qualcomm is acquiring intellectual property (IP), codebases, development processes, software libraries and tools that are critical for creating a full-stack edge AI and IoT ecosystem.
• Access to Arduino’s global community: The partnership opens the door to Arduino’s community of 32 million developers, offering Qualcomm an immediate user base for its technologies – yet this is tied to the open-source model.
• Co-created, market-ready products: With Arduino, Qualcomm can bring to market products that are tested, refined and validated by a large user base. The UNO Q is a result of this collaboration, a better product than either company could have developed independently.
• Reach into the enterprise market: Qualcomm can now promote its industrial IoT solutions, including the UNO Q, through Arduino Pro’s network of over 30,000 business customers, many of whom are already developing edge AI applications.
• Intangible value: Qualcomm gains access to Arduino’s strong brand reputation, trusted developer relationships and community dynamics. These intangible assets carry significant goodwill and make Arduino one of the most recognised and respected names in the developer and maker space.

The gains for the Arduino open-source community 

At the same time, the move will grant Arduino’s community with valuable access to edge AI models and SoC platforms, let alone Qualcomm’s proven strength into scaling technologies and products globally. Essentially, what Qualcomm and Arduino want to achieve is for any industrial developer to be able to build and roll out an industrial edge AI application (say a multi-camera visual inspection system for their factory) in a matter of very few days and not months, at relatively low price. This is truly powerful and transformative, if materialised. 

Marking the trend: open-source approach for industrial IoT

Qualcomm seems to that industrial IoT requires a different business model than automotive, just as automotive has required a distinct strategy from mobile handsets. Importantly, Qualcomm appears committed to continuing Arduino’s open-source approach and even rolling it up to its own strategy in industrial IoT. This of course doesn’t exclude monetisation, but the overall approach differs from Qualcomm’s traditional focus and key strength in proprietary technology licensing. As industrial IoT is notoriously complicated and as Qualcomm moves further into software, open-source practices may prove essential for driving innovation, ensuring interoperability and enabling long-term ecosystem growth in what is now actively being shaped as the edge AI opportunity.