According to the Wall Street Journal.QualcommIntel has been approached about an acquisition. A deal is said to be "far from certain", but at least talks have been held on the matter.
The acquisition of Intel would be big news and a sign that the x86 giant has deteriorated in recent years.
Most recently, Qualcomm reported a $1.6 billion loss and announced it would lay off more than 10,000 workers to cut costs.
The company has also been unable to compete in the mobile space with the latest advances in chips like the Apple Silicon and Snapdragon X.
Intel has also had problems with its recent desktop chips.
The 13th and 14th generation chips were found to be susceptible to permanent damage due to the high voltage supplied to the CPU, so the company extended the warranty on these chips by two years.
Qualcomm has recently entered the PC market with the Snapdragon X.
Launched earlier this year, Snapdragon X received high praise after working closely with Microsoft, which allowed the platform to have about six months of Copilot+ PC exclusivity.
This is the first time that Windows on Arm has been a truly viable alternative to Windows on Intel and AMD.
Of course, if Qualcomm does try to buy Intel, it will need to get approval from regulators around the world. NVIDIA tried to buy Arm for $40 billion in 2020, but the move was rejected due to significant regulatory challenges. A takeover of Intel would almost certainly face a similar dilemma.
As stated in the Wall Street Journal:
"People familiar with the matter warned that a deal is far from certain. Even if Intel were willing to accept it, a deal of this size would almost certainly be subject to antitrust scrutiny, although it could also be seen as an opportunity to strengthen the competitive edge of Chinese chips. To get a deal done, Qualcomm may intend to sell Intel's assets or parts of them to other buyers."
Still, it's interesting to see Qualcomm eager to enter this space. The company won with the Snapdragon X, and the acquisition of Intel will beat its biggest competitor in the Windows space.