Is Qualcomm shopping for Intel? I noticed this query plastered over X (cough, Twitter) at present, and it obtained me pondering: what kind of upside-down world are these folks dwelling in? Certainly, even some precise information retailers have posted headlines posing the identical query, and I’m right here to set the report straight.
No, Qualcomm actually isn’t shopping for Intel, and gained’t be anytime quickly. Regardless of its current victories with the brand new Snapdragon X Elite chip, Qualcomm has not approached Intel with any form of acquisition plan, and Intel itself nonetheless seems to be totally dedicated to its processor enterprise – particularly with how spectacular its upcoming Lunar Lake chips look.
It’s been a little bit of a wild week by way of computing business information: AMD revealed that it’s abandoning the flagship gaming GPU and we obtained our first glimpse of Apple Intelligence on the ‘Glowtime’ occasion, but it surely gained’t be coming to iPhones or Macs for a short time but. Amongst this, Reuters revealed a report claiming that Qualcomm has “examined buying completely different items of Intel”.
Now, that Reuters article comprises the phrase ‘sources say’ a number of occasions in simply the primary few traces, and Qualcomm itself has refused to remark, so take all of this with a pinch of salt. However to interrupt it down, all we actually know is that Intel would possibly be seeking to shed some unprofitable components of its enterprise because it faces some monetary turmoil, and Qualcomm would possibly have been inquisitive about shopping for these enterprise items.
A brand new fighter enters the ring
There’s no denying that Qualcomm is using excessive proper now. I personally reported from Computex 2024 in Taipei earlier this yr that Qualcomm was the clear winner of the occasion, with a rousing keynote deal with that options visitor appearances from a number of laptop computer producer executives, all throwing their collective hats into the Snapdragon ring.
It’s additionally no secret that Intel has been struggling a bit as of late; the large upheaval brought on by Snapdragon X Elite’s arrival has shaken up all the laptop computer market, an space the place Intel has traditionally dominated. AMD continues to supply fierce competitors in different arenas, bringing its highly effective systems-on-a-chip to handheld PCs just like the Asus ROG Ally X, whereas the competing Intel-equipped MSI Claw A1M was simply… whelming.
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Traders additionally seem like sad with Intel’s current efficiency. The processor big’s market capitalization dropped to $80 billion this week, the bottom it has been in over a decade. In the meantime, Qualcomm’s market cap sits at $176bn on the time of writing, whereas long-time competitor AMD sits fairly at $224bn and large canine Nvidia’s AI investments have seen large returns, bringing them as much as a staggering 2.62 trillion {dollars}.
By no means guess towards Intel
I’ve to say, although… I’m not apprehensive. Even when Qualcomm does find yourself shopping for out a few of Intel’s enterprise ventures – maybe its consumer PC design enterprise, as steered by Reuters’ sources – there’s loads of potential for Group Blue to bounce again.
With a confirmed launch date of September 24 for the brand new Lunar Lake CPUs in addition to a slew of laptops that may come bearing these chips (plus a swiftly-rebooted MSI Claw 8 AI+), Intel is due a resurgence. We’ve additionally obtained Intel’s second-gen Arc ‘Battlemage’ discrete GPUs on the horizon, which could possibly be a welcome addition to the inexpensive graphics card market even when the first-gen Arc playing cards did not make an enormous splash.
In addition to, (with out eager to get political right here) Intel isn’t going to go beneath, as a result of the US Navy wants it an excessive amount of. The chipmaker has quite a few long-running contracts and agreements with each the Division of Protection and the Division of Power, so odds are a government-assisted bailout will happen if these straits start to look somewhat too dire. So in case you’re a Group Blue fanboy, don’t have any worry: even the military-industrial complicated has your again.
