A report from SemiAccurate suggests that a company is interested in buying Intel outright, not just parts. Interestingly, it’s not one of the companies previously mentioned after CEO Pat Gelsinger’s departure.
SemiAccurate claims to have received direct confirmation from another high-level source, increasing its confidence in the plan from about 60% to over 90%.
According to industry rumours, Elon Musk, executives of Qualcomm, and GlobalFoundries were at President-Elect Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club over the weekend and Musk is believed to be interested in moving into microchips.
Additional reports suggest, however, that should Musk acquire the business it would be a “poor outcome” for Intel unless the company can hire a new CEO with expertise in advanced manufacturing, technical skills, and Intel experience.
Another report, this time from Bloomberg, suggests that senior government officials are considering a potential deal between Intel and GlobalFoundries, some see GlobalFoundries as a strong partner due to its status as a trusted Pentagon supplier.
Last year, Intel secured a $3.5 billion Pentagon contract to produce advanced semiconductors for military and intelligence use.
A merger between GlobalFoundries and Intel could create a company making everything from basic semiconductors to advanced processors, according to Bloomberg.
However, the merger could face several challenges. For examples the Abu Dhabi government’s investment arm owns about 80% of GlobalFoundries, while the foundry moved away from leading-edge node production years ago due to a lack of orders – it also may simply not have the funds to support an acquisition.
Both Qualcomm and Broadcom have the funds to acquire Intel and were linked to the company last year. However, as the complexity of acquiring all of Intel has become more apparent it appears that Qualcomm has become less interested or would prefer to buy parts of Intel.
Broadcom, known for its custom ASICs co-developed with big CSPs, has told the Financial Times that it is fully focused on advancing its AI business and has no intention of acquiring Intel.
