Altera files confidentially for a US IPO

Altera, the programmable-chip maker backed by Intel, Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi’s MGX, has confidentially filed for a US initial public offering. A confidential filing lets a company begin the regulatory process and test investor interest before revealing key details such as the size, price and timing of the sale. Altera’s chips can be reconfigured for specific tasks after they are made, making them useful in data centers, communications equipment and other systems where workloads change quickly. The offering would give investors a fresh way to judge how much of the AI boom is flowing beyond the companies that make the most advanced AI processors—and could help establish a market value for a business Intel has been separating from its core operations.