Within the next several weeks, Intel is likely to be broken up into at least two, possibly even three or more pieces, as the world’s largest chip-making firm or foundry operator, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) and the world’s number two chip design firm Broadcom divide its assets up. TSMC is seeking a deal to control Intel’s foundry business, while Broadcom is seeking to grab control of Intel’s chip design and marketing business, including its microprocessor CPUs, or central processing units that are the brains of the PC that you use, or the server that your company uses to store its data or power the cloud computing data centers. The Donald Trump administration is helping broker the two unconnected deals to help keep America’s lead in the global arms race to design and manufacture the highest-performance chips within its own borders.
The end often comes “gradually, then suddenly”. In Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel The Son Also Rises, a protagonist uses the phrase to describe two ways in which he went bankrupt. From literature to business to just about every aspect of human relationships, change tends to take place slowly at first and then all at once.
Over the past five years or so, what was one of the world’s best-known tech icons has been on a slippery slope, gradually losing market share and mindshare. For years, there was still hope that with a makeover, the Silicon Valley pioneer might re-emerge like a phoenix. But Intel, whose microprocessors are found in 75% of all personal computers, or PCs, around the world, now appears to be in its final days as a standalone firm.
