Intel has reached an agreement to transfer a majority stake in its Altera division to Silver Lake for $4.46 billion, which values the business at $8.75 billion. The deal is part of Intel's effort to streamline its operations and improve its financial position, while making Altera the world's largest pure-play FPGA provider.
Under the terms of the agreement, Silver Lake will acquire 51% of Altera, while Intel retains 49%, ensuring it continues to benefit from the unit's future performance. The transaction enables Altera to function as an independent company focused on programmable logic technologies. Specifically, Altera aims to double down on established fields such as automotive, aerospace, and communications, while also targeting growth in areas like artificial intelligence, cloud platforms, edge systems, and next-generation wireless networks.
Intel, on the other hand, will reduce operational complexity and focus on its primary business areas: CPUs, GPUs, supporting platforms, and chip production.
"Today's announcement reflects our commitment to sharpening our focus, lowering our expense structure and strengthening our balance sheet," said Lip-Bu Tan, chief executive officer of Intel. "Altera continues to make progress repositioning its product portfolio to participate in the fastest growing and most profitable segments of the FPGA market."
Altera will be led by Raghib Hussain starting May 5, 2025. He replaces Sandra Rivera, who is stepping down after a 25-year tenure at Intel. Hussain previously served as president of Products and Technologies at Marvell and co-founded Cavium. His earlier roles included engineering positions at Cisco and Cadence, as well as founding a security firm called VPNet.
"We are grateful for Sandra’s strong leadership and lasting impact throughout her 25-year Intel career and wish her continued success as she begins a new chapter," said Tan. "Raghib is a superb executive we selected to lead the business forward based on his vast industry experience and proven track record of success. We look forward to partnering with Silver Lake upon closing of the transaction, as their industry expertise will help to accelerate Altera's efforts and unlock additional economic value for Intel."
Intel bought Altera in 2015 for $16.7 billion — its biggest deal ever at the time — viewing the acquisition as a strategic move to broaden its revenue sources and strengthen its role in the data center market. Today, Intel sells a controlling stake in Altera for some $4.46 billion as the company is now valued at $8.75 billion, a significant decrease from the sum that Intel paid for Altera 10 years ago.
The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of 2025, subject to regulatory approval and other conditions. Once closed, Intel will remove Altera’s financial results from its consolidated statements. In the previous fiscal year, Altera generated $1.54 billion in revenue, posted a $615 million loss under standard accounting rules, but showed a $35 million profit on a non-GAAP basis.
