Assuming an acquiring company would have a larger market cap than Intel ($91B) lets take a look at current market caps of US tech companies ($B):<p>Apple $3463 - no chance. They've poured billions into moving off Intel and are doing well. No strategic benefit.<p>Nvidia $3386 - Likely. Plenty of cash on hand. Would make a pretty epic company if combined and Nvidia culture spreads throughout Intel. Diversify away from TSMC as a single (albeit awesome) supplier which is a big risk.<p>Microsoft $3213 - Plausible.<p>Google $2421 - Plausible. But no obvious synergy.<p>Amazon $2374 - No chance. Invested billion into their own ARM.<p>Facebook $1554 - Likely. Software company trying desperately to get into hardware. Don't have ARM investments. Don't have AI chip investments.<p>Tesla $1404 - Unlikely. Don't use x86 in cars anymore as did a urgent pivot to ARM. Elon's unpredictable tho and has the cash.<p>Broadcom $1114 - Likely<p>Oracle $453 - Plausible<p>Salesforce $313 - Plausible as they're an acquisition company<p>Cisco $241 - Plausible as they're an acquisition company<p>IBM $207 - Plausible as they're an acquisition company<p>AMD $197 - No chance on anti-compete law<p>Adobe $187 - Low chance.<p>Qualcomm $182 - Plausible<p>TI $174 - Plausible<p>Micron $117 - Plausible. Intel started out doing ram chips.<p>Depressing how many companies are on the list - shows how far Intel has fallen.
There are only a handful of American companies that could easily afford Intel and have any actual expertise to own Intel. The author was confident the company could pull of the purchase so that narrows the list quite a bit:<p>1. Apple - They have the cash, they like to vertical integrate.<p>2. Microsoft - Also have the cash, but probably not a great idea. It doesn't really sync with their software first business approach.<p>3. Nvidia - They have the cash, but antitrust issues arise. With that said, the US would probably allow it. Nvidia often makes their GPUs on non-cutting edge processes anyway, so Intel foundries might save them some money and they were never able to buy ARM like they wanted to.<p>4. AMD - This is less straightforward, it would probably have to be more of a merger than a straight acquisition, which makes me think this is not the company that is being referred to.<p>There are other companies, but I don't think the financials are nearly as straightforward for someone like Broadcom or Qualcomm. They might have the market valuation, but Intel is still the bigger company in terms of revenue.<p>I think it has to be either Apple or Nvidia that is being referenced. I don't think any other company can look at Intel and say 'should we just buy them?' Maybe Microsoft, but I don't think they would know what to do with Intel and it would be another Nokia situation where they do more harm than good.
Left field possibility:
Warren Buffett<p>He's a holder of TSMC so he gets it. He could talk to Tom Cook to test the idea.<p>Disclosure: I own some INTC, because despite their massive struggles they seem under valued.
The only reason some company would want to buy Intel would be the $ the US Federal Gov is sending Intel's way.<p>But that is now up in the air due to Trump and Musk. So I doubt a purchase will happen until the US Fed becomes stable (if it ever does) and people know what laws will be safe for the long term.