While I can see why there’s a lot of doubt I can see one reason they would.
For years now Apple has been moving things in house, like moving from Intel to their own designs and chips. And moving away from Snapdragon to their own modems.
If they wanted to buy intel it would be for their fab capabilities to reduce their reliance on TSMC.
Do I think they will… probably not, but as I said, I can see why they would.
Makes no sense.
Three months ago Intel stock dropped 30% overnight… so if Apple are even thinking about it then now is a good time.
I could see them buying ARM/ deepening the relationship with ARM. But Intel?
I doubt they enjoy having their balls in TSMC’s vice.
Intel is the only option remotely available to leverage against them.
- Starting from zero will cost bajillions and take decades to get competitive
- Samsung’s probably not divisible in a way that makes their fabs buyable
- They can’t buy into any of the 7nm/5nm level players in the PRC and fund their modernization due to sanctions
- Does anyone else have sub-10nm at anything buy lab scales?
Watch them buy AMD.
Fuck please no
This is about as likely as them buying NXP (who bought Freescale, which used to be Motorola PowerPC)
Don’t really need them.
They’d be buying them for their chip foundries. Apple doesn’t want to have to contract out their chip production. Their whole MO is vertical integration - acquiring their own chip lithography and manufacturing lines would be a HUGE step in that direction.