Qualcomm has approached chipmaker Intel about a possible takeover in recent days, according to a Wall Street Journal report Friday.
Intel has been suffering its own recent failures, and a Qualcomm acquisition would be a big deal for the chip market. The report cited people familiar with the matter, who cautioned that a takeover is far from certain at this point. The magnitude of the deal would likely be scrutinized by antitrust regulators, as it would mean fewer competitors in the PC chips space.
While Intel has been unveiling its Meteor Lake and hyping up its upcoming Lunar Lake next-generation PC chips, the company has also been hit with lawsuits from consumers claiming that Intel’s Raptor Lake silicon from 2023 caused widespread computer failures.
With increasing competition from AMD, Apple and Qualcomm itself, Intel has been struggling. The company suffered a blow when Apple switched to using its own in-house chips for the M-series of Mac silicon back in 2020, while AMD has taken more of the PC silicon market share with its own mid-range and high-end chips. Nvidia’s continued GPU dominance has pressured Intel in offering processing muscle for high-performance tasks, like AI.
Intel has also been slower to offer AI than its rivals, which have ridden the wave of artificial intelligence by offering their own cutting-edge AI-integrated solutions. Intel included some AI features in its Meteor Lake chips, but competitors like AMD’s Ryzen AI mobile chips and others have been released that power Microsoft’s line of Copilot Plus laptops (running the integrated AI assistant of the same name).
All of which has led to a tough financial outlook for Intel, which announced last month that it would cut $10 billion in costs, including laying off over 15,000 employees, after a disappointing second quarter. Qualcomm, on the other hand, reported positive quarterly earnings at the end of July with growth in mobile and automotive sectors, which along with internet of things chip sales represented a diverse portfolio of products.
Qualcomm unveiled its Snapdragon X series chips late last year with on-device AI, which debuted in Microsoft Copilot Plus-branded Surface laptops back in May. That’s given Qualcomm, long known for producing mobile chips that have powered most of the world’s Android phones for years, a foothold into the PC space once dominated by Intel.
Intel declined to comment. Qualcomm did not respond to a request for comment by time of publication.
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{Author}David Lumb{/Author}
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