Qualcomm Strengthens Edge AI Strategy with Acquisition of Arduino

By Chad Cox

Production Editor

Embedded Computing Design

October 07, 2025

News

Image Credit: Qualcomm

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. released information that it is in an agreement to acquire Arduino, an open-source hardware and software company extending Qualcomm Technologies’ strategy of enabling designers with access to its extensive portfolio of edge technologies and products. The acquisition follows Qualcomm’s latest integrations of both Edge Impulse and Foundries.io, allowing the availability of a full-stack edge platform that spans hardware, software, and cloud services. As with any acquisition, the closing is subject to regulatory approval and conditions.

According to the press release, there are 33M+ active users in the Arduino community. Each user will now have access to Qualcomm’s extended technology range. Arduino will continue to be open source while adding a full‐stack platform for modern development, the Arduino UNO Q as the first step.

“Joining forces with Qualcomm Technologies allows us to supercharge our commitment to accessibility and innovation,” said Fabio Violante, CEO, Arduino. “The launch of UNO Q is just the beginning— we’re excited to empower our global community with powerful tools that make AI development intuitive, scalable, and open to everyone.”

The Arduino UNO Q is a single board computer highlighting what the company is referring to as a “dual brain” architecture. It consists of a Linux Debian-capable microprocessor and a real-time microcontroller, uniting high-performance computing with real-time control. It leverages the Qualcomm Dragonwing QRB2210 processor running a full Linux environment.

UNO Q is designed to facilitate AI-powered vision and sound solutions formulating data from the environment for smart home solutions to industrial automation systems. The board is the first from Arduino to work with Arduino App Lab, a new, integrated development environment built to unify Arduino development from Real-time OS, Linux, Python and AI flows to streamline production.

App Lab combined with the Edge Impulse platform enhances the process of building, fine-tuning, and optimizing AI models using real-world data ideal for object/human detection, anomaly detection, image classification, ambient sound recognition, and keyword spotting.

“With our acquisitions of Foundries.io, Edge Impulse, and now Arduino, we are accelerating our vision to democratize access to our leading‐edge AI and computing products for the global developer community,” said Nakul Duggal, Group General Manager, Automotive, Industrial and Embedded IoT, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “Arduino has built a vibrant global community of developers and creators. By combining their open-source ethos with Qualcomm Technologies’ portfolio of leading edge products and technologies, we’re helping enable millions of developers to create intelligent solutions faster and more efficiently—including a path towards global commercialization by leveraging the scale of our ecosystem.”

For more information, visit qualcomm.com.

Chad Cox. Production Editor, Embedded Computing Design, has responsibilities that include handling the news cycle, newsletters, social media, and advertising. Chad graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a B.A. in Cultural and Analytical Literature.