Intels Chips on the Table

ImageIntel’s deal dilemma First came news that Qualcomm had made an informal takeover approach for Intel, its historically bigger rival.Now comes one that Apollo Global Management has offered to invest billions in the embattled chip giant.It’s unclear whether Intel would proceed with either potential deal.

But their existence underscores how far the onetime giant of American chipmaking has fallen.A sale to Qualcomm would present huge hurdles:Qualcomm is best known for chips used in cellular technology and it doesn’t make its own processors.That raises a question about whether it would want to buy Intel’s foundry business, which makes semiconductors for outside clients.

(Uncertainty over the foundry unit would be troubling for the Biden administration, whose domestic chip revival plans hinge in part on the Intel division’s success.)Buying Intel, whose market value on Friday was $93 billion, could be challenging to finance.Antitrust scrutiny is perhaps the biggest obstacle.Some experts contend that Intel and Qualcomm have limited overlap.

But uniting two of America’s biggest chipmakers could be a nonstarter for regulators.One thing Qualcomm won’t do, according to The Financial Times, is make a hostile bid.Pursuing one would introduce more issues … as Broadcom discovered when it went hostile on Qualcomm years ago.Apollo is seeking to make a big investment in Intel, according to Bloomberg, which the firm has reportedly pitched as a vote of confidence in the company’s turnaround plan.

The deal could be similar to the investment that Apollo helped lead into the hard-drive maker Western Digital last year.Apollo knows Intel well: In June, it bought a stake in the company’s chip manufacturing operation in Ireland.The investment interest raises other questions.What would happen in a takeover to the billions in subsidies that Intel has been promised via the CHIPS and Science Act? And how far would the Biden administration go to protect a company it see...