July 22, 2021
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger seeks to make the company a player in chip production through transformational acquisition, but there is a lack of acquisition targets for Intel.
With the $30 billion acquisition of chipmaker GlobalFoundries unlikely to happen anytime soon after chief executive Tom Caulfield rejected talks over an Intel deal, Intel will have fewer options to meet its target.
Two of the next largest players in this field, China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp and Taiwan’s United Microelectronics Corp, are excluded for political reasons.
According to Dan Hutchenson, CEO of VLSI Research, if Intel cannot buy a foundry, its other option is to go to smaller chip companies that still own some of its factories.
Intel has always aimed to produce the world’s fastest computing chips, and focusing on them meant that Intel quickly discarded older chip technology.
Intel’s rivals are taking a different approach to chipmaking, keeping older technology.
Intel’s ability to build foundries for outside customers to regain competitiveness in advanced chips could be difficult given the ongoing global chip shortage.
For more information, read the original story in Reuters.
