Qualcomm in Talks With Intel Over Takeover, Report Says

Qualcomm has approached fellow US chipmaker Intel in latest days a couple of potential takeover, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

Intel has suffered a string of setbacks lately, and a Qualcomm acquisition could be a giant deal for the worldwide chip market. The report cited folks conversant in the matter, who cautioned {that a} takeover is much from sure at this level. The magnitude of the deal would seemingly be scrutinized by antitrust regulators, as it will imply fewer rivals within the PC chip area.

Whereas Intel has been unveiling its Meteor Lake and upcoming Lunar Lake next-generation PC chips, the corporate has additionally been hit with lawsuits from customers claiming that its Raptor Lake silicon from 2023 caused widespread computer failures. 

With growing competitors from AMD, Apple and Qualcomm itself, Intel has struggled. The corporate suffered a blow when Apple switched to using its own in-house chips for the M-series of Mac silicon again in 2020, whereas AMD has taken extra of the PC silicon market share with its personal midrange and high-end chips. Nvidia’s continued GPU dominance has pressured Intel into providing extra processing muscle for high-performance duties, like AI.

Intel, primarily based in Santa Clara, California, has been slower to supply AI than its rivals, which have ridden the wave of synthetic intelligence by providing their very own cutting-edge AI-integrated options. Intel included some AI features in its Meteor Lake chips, however rivals like AMD’s Ryzen AI mobile chips and others have been launched that energy Microsoft’s line of Copilot Plus laptops (working the built-in AI assistant of the identical identify).

All of which has led to a troublesome monetary outlook for Intel, which introduced final month that it will cut $10 billion in costs, together with shedding over 15,000 workers, after a disappointing second quarter. Qualcomm, then again, reported positive quarterly earnings on the finish of July with progress within the cellular and automotive sectors, which together with web of issues chip gross sales represented a various portfolio of merchandise.

San Diego-based Qualcomm unveiled its Snapdragon X series chips late final 12 months with on-device AI, which debuted in Copilot Plus-branded Surface laptops again in Might. That is given Qualcomm, lengthy identified for producing cellular chips which have powered many of the world’s Android telephones for years, a foothold within the PC area as soon as dominated by Intel. 

Intel declined to remark. Qualcomm didn’t reply to a request for remark by time of publication.