Broadcom, TSMC eye possible Intel deals to split storied chipmaker

[lenerdenator]

Right now, I'm imagining AMD as Danny DeVito's character, Frank Reynolds, in that episode of Always Sunny where the gang wrestles for the troops. He's the Trashman, which is an awful wrestling persona, but at the end of the match, everyone else is seriously injured on the floor of the ring. With a bewildered look on his face, he slowly raised his arms, and the crowd went wild.

Sometimes you just gotta stick to the core competencies and stick to them well.

[protimewaster]

> Sometimes you just gotta stick to the core competencies and stick to them well.

Part of me thinks this is what Radio Shack could've made work. They almost made it to the point in time where hobbyist electronics / maker culture was popular again, but by that time they were just the place people used to buy cell phones from.

[throwcatowayne]

https://youtu.be/L1EFKZs3Bvk?si=dundU4QVL_U0F0z7 (NSFW probably)

[m4rtink]

Broadcom getting involved with VMware did wonders for all VMware customers - I'm sure all current users of Intel products and services are also delighted in a similar manner! ;-)

[Blackthorn]

Unfortunately, it could only be an improvement after the 13th generation problems. I strongly believe that Intel owes me $150 after releasing a firmware update that turned my processor into one that cost $150 less.

[FeistySkink]

I'm sure Intel's open source contributions will quadruple, seeing how BCM is such an avant-garde.

[The_Colonel]

I think Intel is a different kind of acquisition for Broadcom than VMWare.

VMWare had/has a strong moat which can be exploited by jacking up prices. Intel doesn't have that.

[bornfreddy]

God please no, we need competition. Whoever fired Pat Gelsinger should be fried.

[BeetleB]

This is the guy who fired Pat Gelsinger:

> Yeary has been telling individuals close to him that he is most focused on maximizing value for Intel shareholders, the report added.

RIP Intel.

[crest]

Whoever hired Pat Gelsinger should be fired … from a cannon.

[thedougd]

What a nightmare. Imagine Broadcom merging with IBM. They'd have the legacy IT market cornered whether virtualized x86 or mainframe, customers be damned. Perhaps they already do. Mainframe users often rely on CA Tech's software, which Broadcom bought years ago.

[baq]

Sir there are children frequenting this site.

[newsclues]

Since reading a Gibson novel that mentioned the dystopian mega tech conglomerate (DatAmerica maybe?), I've always enjoyed the mental exercise of M&A to create a monster corporation.

Intel + Broadcom + IBM + HP + Oracle + Apple + Google

They'd from Chips to Cloud.

[nickdothutton]

Barbarians at the Logic Gate.

[rwmj]

Broadcom getting involved with Intel will be excellent business ... for all of Intel's competitors.

[supertrope]

They’d hike prices 10x for the whales: hyperscalers and PC manufacturers and ignore the needs of anyone who does not buy CPUs by the tray.

[m4r1k]

Tsmc might be good for the fab business. Broadcom very very bad for everything else. Broadcom historically doesn’t acquire, it kills.

[nsteel]

Fab-wise, presumably they'll just gobble up the sites and equipment. Maybe some of the next-gen tech is interesting. But then we'll be left with less competition in the fab industry. This is very unlikely to be good news for anyone other than TSMC shareholders.

[reginald78]

Yes, there won't be an Intel when they're done. Previous customers will be using AMD x86 or ARM after suffering being screwed by Broadcom for a few years.

[andrehacker]

Hm, bad news for Oregon. From this article: https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2024/12/intel-sput...

Oregon exports more than $30 billion worth of electronics annually, most of which are semiconductors manufactured in Intel’s Hillsboro factories.

----------

The company employs more people than any other business in the state. ----------

The state’s chip industry pays an average yearly wage of more than $150,000, according to government data, well over double the state average. Hefty pay from Intel is an especially big deal in Oregon, which relies on personal income taxes for the bulk of state revenue.

---------- ...Intel might consider selling its business off in pieces.

That could be calamitous in Oregon, turning Intel’s huge local campuses into satellite operations of other companies that don’t need the full range of corporate and technological functions that have been the foundation of Intel’s Hillsboro sites for decades.

“The people who work at Intel have to be really panicked,” Hutcheson said.

Intel’s research factories in Hillsboro support high-volume production sites in Arizona, Ireland, Israel and -- soon -- in Ohio. If that manufacturing network were someday to break up, it’s not clear what role would be left for the company’s top engineers and scientists in Oregon.

[znpy]

I wonder if this couldn't be the chance for Apple to make the definitive move towards vertical integration. If you think about it, it's the only missing part in their vertical integration story.

It would really be a sad day and the begin of truly dark era for the entire computing industry, though.

As an alternative... Amazon would probably be another interesting buyer. Amazon is another company dead serious about having their own silicon. And owning the main supplier of x86 chips as well in-house capabilities to manufacture their own Graviton chips would give them an incredible edge over other cloud computing providers.

[ralfn]

Broadcom is a very hostile and abusive company. That would be the end of Intel chips.

Things Broadcom would do: sell you a chip, nerf if after a year and charge you a subscription to unnerf.

Look at what they did to VMWare. If you were a VMWare customer you were and are in deep shit right now. The fact this conversation between Intel and the Grim Reaper is taking place means everybody, from consumers to OEMs to clouds need to divest away from Intel today.

Sell what you have while you still can get some cash for it and remove it from consideration for any future plans.

[ThinkBeat]

Why would TSMC want to buy factories from Intel?

Intels plants are far from start of the art. Given their inability to compete and catch up with TSMC

[kyrra]

Lots of people still use older processor nodes. For example Groq[1] uses 14nm chips for their inference chips. Older fab tech is cheaper to use (less demand and higher yields). Most chips made are on older processes, it's only the bleeding-edge CPU/GPU chips that use bleeding-edge fab tech.

[1] https://groq.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/GroqChip%E2%84%A...

[jabart]

I'm assuming TSMC has new and old lines. A 555 chip isn't done on the same line as an AMD Zen 5 chip. Permits, buildout, infrastructure, suppliers, you already get a big warehouse that makes chips and you can bring in your own people to optimize it on day one not year 4.

[edward28]

Intel has a couple of euv machines that tsmc could use and they could take Intel's current nodes and sell them as US made chips without threatening their own top nodes.

[nsteel]

Ignoring their newer fabs for a minute (which do exist), because there's still a load of money to be made on reliable older nodes.

This data is a couple years out of date now but it still shows how relevant older nodes are: https://stockdividendscreener.com/technology/semiconductor/t...

[suraci]

> Why would TSMC want to buy factories from Intel?

I think the reason is obvious...it has no choice

[hujun]

because Trump said TSMC is stealing US chip biz, and threaten 100% tariff [1]. I think this is TSMC's attempt to avoid tariff

[1]https://www.pcmag.com/news/trump-intel-was-great-until-taiwa...

[drewg123]

I wonder how much this is costing Intel in terms of enterprise sales? I'm guessing that headlines like this will accelerate the switch to AMD and ARM. Who wants to design servers around chips from a company that is not likely to exist in its present form? That opens up all kinds of supply chain and support concerns.

[dboreham]

Revenge of the MBAs.

[gomijacogeo]

Anyone who buys Intel would probably be making the same mistake Boeing did with McDonnell Douglas.

[xbmcuser]

My hope for China reaching parity on node size or at least get close to it grows each day.

[nwh5jg56df]

Why are you hopeful of that?

[ChrisArchitect]

Gift link: https://www.wsj.com/tech/broadcom-tsmc-eye-possible-intel-de...

[oumua_don17]

Ironical that two companies led by the same CEO, the first one already acquired by BC and now the second one too!

[Incipient]

Genuine question. Are there any examples of big companies getting bigger that ended well for the consumer?

[01100011]

I'm not seeing what Broadcom brings to the table here. They don't have chip mfg experience. Sure, they're a customer, but so what?

TSMC is not going to be motivated to build up a competitor who weakens the economic wall around Taiwan.

What I could see happening based on recent events is that Trump tells Taiwan they have a couple years of US security left. TSMC is then forced to consider putting more effort into mfg in the US(and other countries). What that would mean for the rest of the elec mfg supply chain is unknown. Taiwan is quite critical beyond just chip mfg.

[smj-edison]

Perhaps they're buying the IP part of Intel?

[dang]

Since the WSJ article seems hardwalled, we changed the URL from https://www.wsj.com/tech/broadcom-tsmc-eye-possible-intel-de... to a story that reports on it.