Nordic Semiconductor Acquires Memfault to Flesh Out Its Cloud Offering

Nordic Semiconductor has announced the acquisition of cloud platform provider Memfault, marking what the company describes as "a major leap in Nordic's evolution" — growing from a simple hardware supplier to a complete solution provider.

"This acquisition is a declaration of intent," says Nordic chief executive officer Vegard Wollan of the deal. "Together, we enable thousands of customers to continuously interact with millions of devices in the field. We are setting a new standard in the global semiconductor landscape for integrating hardware, software, tools, and services. By combining Nordic's ultra-low power wireless connectivity solutions with Memfault's cloud services, we are making it faster, simpler, and more secure to develop, maintain, and improve connected products through their entire lifecycle."

"Nordic's world-class systems-on-chip, paired with Memfault's cloud platform, creates an unmatched full-stack solution for connected products," adds Memfault chief executive officer François Baldassari. "Our shared goal is simple: free our customers and engineers to innovate while the platform guarantees reliability and insights for millions of products in the field."

The two companies have been working together for some time, sharing as they do common customers and target markets — but the acquisition, which will see Memfault become a Nordic subsidiary, is designed to cement their relationship and position Memfault's platform as the go-to cloud service for Nordic's wireless system-on-chips. As part of that, the company has confirmed that Memfault's services will be integrated directly into Nordic's existing nRF Cloud platform.

While that's good news for those already using Nordic hardware on Memfault's platform, it raises concerns about third-party support — concerns that Nordic is keen to alleviate. "Nordic is committed to supporting every IoT [Internet of Things] device maker – including all existing Memfault customers – regardless of their choice of hardware," the company promises. "The Memfault platform will continue to thrive, with further enhancements and investments in hardware integration, device management, and advanced AI [Artificial Intelligence] capabilities."

Financial terms of the acquisition, which is pending the usual regulatory approvals, have not been disclosed.