WSJ: Intel wants to acquire GlobalFoundries

Intel is negotiating with the owner of GlobalFoundries to acquire that chip company, the Wall Street Journal claims. It could be a takeover amount of about 30 billion dollars, according to those involved.

Intel is in talks with Mubadala Investment Co., an investment fund of the government of Abu Dhabi and owner of the American chip company GlobalFoundries. The value of GlobalFoundries would be estimated at 30 billion dollars, converted 25.40 billion euros. WSJ emphasizes that the negotiations can still be broken off and GlobalFoundries goes ahead with its planned IPO. The chip company itself reports to the newspaper that it is not aware of any takeover talks.

The acquisition plans would be part of Intel’s strategy to expand its capacity and produce chips for other parties and not just for itself. An acquisition of GlobalFoundries would accelerate that strategy in one fell swoop. GlobalFoundries was formed in 2008 from AMD’s chip manufacturing division , which divested it in 2008 . The company still makes a lot of chips for AMD.

GlobalFoundries has been through tough times and has had to pull out of battle with Samsung and TSMC over manufacturing processes for 7nm chip structures and smaller . The company has been able to take advantage of the chip shortages and announced at the beginning of this year to invest more than a billion euros in increasing its capacity, according to Reuters . In addition, there was also the announcement that the IPO could possibly take place this year instead of late 2022 or early 2023.

Intel is exploring numerous ways to increase its capacity. The company has announced that it plans to build new factories and would consider locations such as the Benelux , Germany and France. In addition, CEO Pat Gelsinger openly lobbies to obtain subsidies, not only in Europe but also in the US. The United States should invest in American companies, Gelsinger recently wrote on Politico , thus excluding competitors TSMC and Samsung from US subsidies.