With Arduino deal, Qualcomm pushes deeper into open-source and edge AI development

Qualcomm will acquire Arduino, the open-source hardware and software platform popular with millions of developers, in a move aimed at expanding its reach into the robotics, IoT, and AI edge ecosystems.

The company said Arduino will keep its independent brand and mission, while new offerings such as the Qualcomm-powered Arduino UNO Q and the AppLab development environment will give developers easier access to advanced computing and AI capabilities.

The acquisition gives Qualcomm direct access to Arduino’s community of more than 33 million developers worldwide, positioning the chipmaker to strengthen its foothold among embedded and edge computing developers who prototype and build connected devices.

“App Lab offers developers an open-source platform which is designed to rapidly ideate, prototype, and scale AI-powered solutions to production,” the company said in a statement. “Seamless integration of App Lab with the Edge Impulse platform also helps streamline and accelerate the process of building, fine-tuning, and optimizing AI models using real-world data for a wide range of capabilities such as object/human detection, anomaly detection, image classification, ambient sound recognition, and keyword spotting.”

Value addition for developers

UNO Q is powered by Qualcomm’s Dragonwing processor, which brings high-performance computing and real-time control to the platform, according to Qualcomm.

Analysts say this, combined with the new AppLab development environment, could reshape how developers build and deploy IoT and AI-driven prototypes.

“It could significantly streamline IoT and robotics prototyping,” said Charlie Dai, VP and principal analyst at Forrester. “Developers would gain access to high-performance, AI-ready hardware paired with robust software workflows. However, this tighter integration might also create a steeper learning curve for those accustomed to Arduino’s simplicity.”

The UNO Q board brings high-speed communication interfaces for vision acceleration and multimodal sensing capabilities, which are features that are foundational to physical AI.“Physical AI is designing systems that directly interact with, and operate within, the physical world,” said Avinash Dev Nagumanthri, director analyst at Gartner. “They manipulate objects, move through space, or sense physical phenomena. AppLab complements this hardware by offering developers a streamlined environment for building, testing, and deploying embedded applications.”It also bridges the gap between rapid prototyping and production deployment, helping developers iterate faster and bring IoT and robotics solutions to market more quickly, Nagumanthri added.

This would empower developers to move beyond basic sensor integration and into advanced domains like Edge AI, real-time analytics, and autonomous systems, all within the familiar Arduino ecosystem.

“The addition of the AppLab tool enables smoother transitions from basic robotics coding to AI-driven workflows, simplifying development across hardware and software layers,” said Manish Rawat, semiconductor analyst at TechInsights. “This move lowers technical barriers for developers, accelerates prototyping cycles, and unifies embedded programming with AI and data processing.”

Open-source concerns

In its announcement, Qualcomm said the acquisition “combines Arduino’s open-source ethos with Qualcomm Technologies’ portfolio of leading-edge products and technologies,” aiming to help millions of developers build intelligent solutions faster and scale them globally through its ecosystem.

Still, the move could prompt questions within the open-source community about whether Arduino’s long-standing neutrality and support for multiple chip vendors will remain unchanged.

“While Qualcomm may pledge to maintain openness, developers might fear tighter coupling with Qualcomm hardware,” Dai said. “It may potentially reduce flexibility and introduce digital sovereignty concerns. Preserving Arduino’s open governance and multi-vendor support will be critical to sustaining trust and community engagement.”

Even perceived bias toward Qualcomm hardware could erode confidence in Arduino’s open ethos, Rawat said.  “Strategically, if Qualcomm balances commercial interests with open collaboration, it could position itself as a more developer-friendly player bridging the gap between proprietary silicon ecosystems and community-driven innovation,” Rawat added.

Others said the impact is likely to be minimal, noting that Qualcomm’s recent acquisition of Edge Impulse, another popular edge AI developer platform, has not affected its ability to support chips from multiple vendors.

“Qualcomm would see this acquisition as a way to grow the edge AI ecosystem instead of making it more exclusive,” said Lian Jye Su, chief analyst at Omdia.  “To draw on a less perfect analogy, it is going to be similar to Microsoft’s acquisition of GitHub, where the latter continues to run independently without any interference from Microsoft.”

Nagumanthri pointed out that central to Arduino’s success is its Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL), which enables compatibility across a wide range of microcontrollers from various vendors. UNO Q board maintains HAL integrity, signaling a commitment to preserving this openness.“This is critical for sustaining developer trust, especially among those who rely on Arduino’s multi-vendor flexibility,” Nagumanthri said. “So far, the signs are promising. Qualcomm appears to align with Arduino’s ethos with the new Arduino UNO board.”