The takeover talk relating to Alphawave highlights an issue that has long dogged the UK tech sector: companies in the country struggle to scale out from the startup phase due to a lack funding, and instead turn to overseas backers and ultimately end up in foreign ownership – as Arm itself did.

If the Alphawave acquisition materializes, it would mark Qualcomm’s third buyout since the start of the year. Earlier this week, the chip giant announced that it has bought Vietnamese artificial intelligence research group MovianAI. Qualcomm previously acquired Edge Impulse Inc, a venture-backed provider of AI model development software.

U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm is considering making an offer to acquire Alphawave IP Group, it said on Tuesday, sending shares of the British semiconductor company surging more than 52%. Alphawave designs and licenses semiconductor technology for data centers,