Qualcomm to Buy Arduino, Powering a New Era of Open Hardware

Qualcomm has signed an agreement to acquire Arduino, the open-source hardware company that helped launch the modern maker movement. The deal was announced this week alongside the launch of the Arduino UNO Q, a new dual-chip board powered in part by Qualcomm silicon. Financial terms weren’t disclosed, but both companies say the acquisition is aimed at bringing more powerful hardware to the Arduino community while preserving the open tools and ecosystem that made it what it is.

The Arduino UNO Q.

Ultimately, it’s because of that community that the deal will raise both eyebrows and expectations. Arduino is, after all, more than a brand. It’s a teaching tool, a start-up platform, and a popular alternative to Raspberry Pi. For Qualcomm, it’s a way to put its silicon in front of 30 million developers, many of whom build the prototypes that turn into actual products. For Arduino users, it’s a chance to level up, provided the core stays intact.

A Sign of What’s to Come

The new board is called UNO Q. It looks like a regular Arduino, but under the hood, it’s something else entirely. There’s a quad-core Qualcomm processor running Debian Linux, paired with a real-time STM32 microcontroller that handles the kind of low-latency control Arduino is known for. That combination means you can run AI models or stream from a camera while still toggling pins with microsecond accuracy.

Block diagram of UNO Q. Visit page 13 of the datasheet for an expanded view. 

At the time of writing, the board starts at $44 and ships with 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of eMMC storage, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and a full-size USB-C port that supports video out. It also keeps the standard UNO shield layout, so existing hardware should still fit. Arduino has published the schematics and layout files under an open license.

The company has also confirmed that the STM32 half of the board remains programmable through the traditional Arduino IDE. That’s important not just for legacy projects, but for classrooms and educators who can’t afford to rewrite lesson plans every time the hardware changes. Arduino says its goal is to bridge the old and the new, not replace one with the other.

A Familiar Name, a Different Direction

There’s a clear strategic logic behind the deal. Qualcomm has spent years trying to get traction in edge computing—AI cameras, robotics, industrial sensors—and now it has a direct channel to developers building those systems at the prototype stage. Arduino’s footprint in education also gives Qualcomm a way into classrooms that might otherwise default to Raspberry Pi or ESP32. The fact that UNO Q uses both a Qualcomm chip and a microcontroller from STMicroelectronics suggests the company isn’t planning to wall off the platform just yet.

UNO Q is powered by Qualcomm's Dragonwing QRB2210 chip. 

That said, some users are already asking hard questions. Will drivers for the GPU, image processor, and AI accelerator be maintained long-term? Will App Lab (the new development environment Arduino is building) support other boards, or quietly push people toward Qualcomm silicon? Will Arduino’s Pro line stay vendor-agnostic or tilt toward the new owner?

None of those answers is obvious yet. But Arduino’s track record suggests the team understands what’s at stake. The company has made a point of preserving compatibility across vendors and price points and reaffirmed this week that all existing boards and tools will continue to be supported.

What happens next depends on long-term support. It’s one thing to promise open access and another to keep kernel drivers updated and boards available at the announced price. If UNO Q ships on time, works with existing tools, and doesn’t quietly push users into a Qualcomm-only world, it could be a meaningful step forward for the entire open hardware stack. For now, UNO Q looks like a promising start: a sign that embedded computing is growing up, and that the companies behind it are finally paying attention to who’s actually building things.