Rumours persist that Intel may be looking to carve off pieces of itself in order to withstand the storm it currently finds itself within. Amid reports that an action plan is imminent, it appears that Qualcomm may be moving around in its periphery, eyeing up potential acquisitions—including Intel's chip design business.
Two sources speaking to Reuters have said that Intel's client PC design business is "of significant interest" to Qualcomm's executives, but that it's also looking at all of the company's design units (via Wccftech). An Intel spokesperson has said that Qualcomm has not approached the company about an acquisition, but the thought of such a move is quite intriguing.
Qualcomm's ARM-based chips were much anticipated additions to the PC CPU space, and while they appear to have been hampered by emulation issues in practice, they certainly seem to have got under Intel's skin a little. The blue team's recent Lunar Lake launch was peppered with references to Qualcomm's chips (more than AMD, in fact), which suggest that Intel has been taken Qualcomm's strides into the market quite seriously.
Selling off a prestigious part of its business to a company that seems like an up-and-coming competitor in the PC space would likely be far from ideal for Intel. That being said, given Intel's troubles of late, having a buyer seriously interested in its assets could prove to be enough reason to take any potential offer seriously, no matter which company makes it.
Regardless, the sources say that Qualcomm has been working on plans to buy pieces of Intel for months—although its interests and plans have not been finalised, and are subject to change.
Without wishing to sound like a broken record, it's not been looking good for Intel of late. While other sources have shot down the idea of Intel selling its foundry to another buyer, the company has also announced that its upcoming Arrow Lake processors won't be making any use of its 20A node and instead will be manufactured primarily by a third party (presumably TSMC).
The company has instead chosen to focus on its 18A node, which Intel says has been producing promising results. Still, what with Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger previously stating that he had "bet the whole company on 18A", it seems like Intel might be keen to double down on that particular segment of its business.
Chip design, though? Well, that'd be quite the thing for a chip maker to lose. Given the dire straits Intel finds itself in though, I suppose anything is possible, and its no surprise that competitors like Qualcomm have been sniffing around to see whether Intel might be prepared to sell off some of its more valuable assets.
