If we were to go back twenty years ago, we would have said with absolute confidence that Intel is here to stay. The company provides chips that power billions of PCs globally. It’s hard to imagine a PC that doesn’t feature an Intel chipset. Unfortunately, today, it looks like Intel is on the verge of selling itself off—or at least parts of itself—to competitors in the semiconductor industry. As part of the Trump administration’s Made in America push, TSMC could acquire a stake in Intel.
TSMC’s stake in Intel
According to a report from Taiwan’s Economic Daily publication, TSMC is looking to acquire a 20% stake in Intel. The report claims that TSMC could acquire a 20% stake in Intel’s foundry business as part of the Trump administration’s Made in America plans. This can be achieved by injecting cash or providing technology.
Acquiring a larger stake could invite regulatory scrutiny, so analysts speculate that a 20% minority stake would help TSMC’s investment fly under the radar. However, achieving this might not be straightforward. This is because while TSMC and Intel are in the semiconductor business, both companies have very different operational processes. This means that TSMC might not necessarily be able to run Intel as efficiently as it does its own operations.
It also seems that TSMC might not be the only company eyeing Intel’s operations. A report from the Wall Street Journal suggests that Broadcom is also interested. However, both companies might be looking to buy different parts of Intel. TSMC is looking at the foundry business, while Broadcom is eyeing Intel’s chip design and marketing business. Currently, all parties are reportedly discussing the preliminary stages, so they have not made any official announcements yet.
Intel’s steady decline
As we said, Intel seemed invincible. However, the company has made several missteps over the past few years. This has led to consumers losing faith in the company and allowed the competition to catch up. The biggest example is losing Apple as one of their main customers.
Apple used Intel’s chips for its Mac computers for years. But then, one day, Apple ditched them and introduced its own lineup of Arm-powered chipsets. These SoCs not only outperformed their Intel counterparts, but they also offered significantly better energy efficiency. Qualcomm has also made similar advancements, helping to create an ecosystem with more Arm-powered PCs. Intel still commands a massive market share, although advancements in Arm architecture have shown that there are viable alternatives.
The company also suffered damage to its reputation with issues surrounding its Raptor Lake and Arrow Lake CPUs, which resulted in its share price losing 60% of its value.
2025-02-18 15:09:41