The biggest news this week: Qualcomm eyeing a potential takeover of Intel. This would have been unthinkable even a few years ago. Intel was once the world’s most valuable chipmaker. Even now, it still churns out the majority (over 70%) of the processors that power PCs all over the world. Surely, it’s too big to fail.
But the chipmaker has been playing catchup in the foundry business, and faces stiff competition in its core x86 business from a resurgent AMD. Intel’s comeback plan was to invest in new foundries, subsidised by the US government, that would help it close the gap with TSMC, which makes the processors for big tech firms like Apple, AMD, and Nvidia.
Semiconductor factories, though, are expensive to build and operate. Intel’s most advanced foundry is only expected to start production next year. Meanwhile, the chipmaker was hit by an instability…
