Qualcomm wants to buy Intel… In technology matters, it was the media bombshell of the weekend, and according to the US media, an acquisition offer would already be on the table, which, if completed, would turn the history of technology upside down.

Intel, the big “chip giant”, has dominated the semiconductor market with a firm hand for the past three decades in markets such as servers and client computers, with its x86 solutions and Microsoft’s support of Windows in what has come to be called “Wintel”. ‘. But nothing lasts forever And its own mistakes (the transition from 10nm manufacturing was terrible) were compounded by the rise of other companies that took a bite out of their business and opened others where Intel didn’t have the capacity.

One of them is ARM, an architecture that has strongly entered PCs (especially with Apple) and another was NVIDIA as a manufacturer of server accelerators. But the worst came from the huge mobility market, where Intel inexplicably failed to obtain sales of any kind. Mobility today, counting mobile phones, tablets or wearables, easily multiplies the installed base of computers by ten.

The result of all this is that Intel Corporation is going through one of the worst moments in its history. It is experiencing major declines in revenue and profits, is preparing a program of thousands of layoffs (there is talk of 15,000 to add to the previous ones), plans to stop investment in new production plants in Europe and his fall in the stock market was brutallast year 40%. So much for leaving it in the hands of other sharks…

Qualcomm wants to buy Intel, is it possible?

For us veterans who know Intel from its best moments, it seems impossible to consider selling Qualcomm, Just a few years ago, I would never have dreamed of doing this surgery. Neither Qualcomm nor anyone else. But numbers are numbers. Intel is worth $90 billion on the stock market, while Qualcomm has more than doubled it with a market capitalization that has risen to $184 billion after rising 55% last year. And it’s still rising, while investors have lost faith that Intel’s current executives can turn things around.

For Qualcomm, the merger would combine its extensive experience in chip technology for mobile devices with Intel’s strong presence in PC and server processors. The acquisition would represent an important strategic shift for Qualcomm, diversifying its portfolio and strengthening its position in a changing technology landscape now driven by everything that talks and smells like artificial intelligence.

Qualcomm and Intel declined to comment, but the Wall Street Journal and then The News York Times assure that talks have taken place and even Qualcomm has submitted an offer that would become the largest operation in the history of the technology industry exceeding $100,000 million.

If financial considerations come first, strategic and regulatory are no less that they would surely intervene. Intel isn’t the Intel we used to know, but it’s still much more than just a chip maker. Both in the field of intellectual property and as a guarantor of what they call “national security”. The presence of its chips in intelligence and defense data centers is large.

And a partial sale without a production division?

Another option that has been discussed is the partial sale of some of Intel’s divisions. The most obvious is the Altera, a programmable chip unit that has failed and can be sold to a third party specializing in this type of development.

Qualcomm would be more interested in client computers, PC chips, software and personal computer sales channels. And we’re talking about proposals because -before selling- Intel could spin off its manufacturing division. IDM 2.0 marked one of the biggest changes in business strategy in the chip giant’s history, as it marked the company’s entry into the foundry business, or on-demand semiconductor manufacturing for third parties.

IFS operates as an independent business unit and is responsible for the production of chips on behalf of third parties under the two dominant architectures x86 and ARM, and in the future also for the third and promising RISC-V. Foundries like TSMC have most of their business here, and it won’t be easy either. But, What if Intel ends up being a third-party chip maker? The case gives rise to many analyses, and we will have the opportunity to do them. We’ll see. Intel and Qualcomm have not made any public statements regarding this information beyond the rumors.