Intel may soon be split into separate chip design and chip manufacturing businesses if recent reports are accurate with Broadcom and TSMC reportedly in discussions to acquire separate sectors of the tech giant.
According to Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal, Taiwanese chip manufacturing company TSMC is primarily interested in acquiring Intel’s chip manufacturing and fabrication plants in the United States, the Intel Foundry.
The Wall Street Journal also reports Broadcom has “informally discussed with its advisers making a bid” for Intel’s chip design business, a separate arm of the company which includes its chips for personal computers and servers.
Neither company wants it all
Neither company appears to be interested in buying Intel wholesale, with reports claiming Broadcom has no interest in the Intel Foundry.
Major news publications have highlighted the possibility of using a consortium model to execute the carve-up of Intel’s businesses, which could also include input from private equity.
A White House official told The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg that the Trump Administration would likely resist the sell-off of Intel’s US chip factories to a foreign company but the company also has fabrication factories in other countries, including Ireland and Israel.
Intel has been the subject of much speculation since its $10 billion restructuring plan removed more than 15,000 positions within the company.
Despite that, the semiconductor industry is still moving from strength to strength, and Intel’s full-year revenue for 2024 was US$53.1 billion, down just 2% year-on-year.
Whichever way the deal goes, it’s likely Intel’s Foundry will be spun off into a separate entity, with interim co-CEO David Zinsner stating the business would get its own operational board and resource planning system at an investor conference late last year.
“That's already in flight. That's going to happen and it’s just a matter of time at this point that we lock in the milestones associated with creating that separation,” he said.