By Jane Lanhee Lee
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Intel Corp Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger on Thursday told Reuters that Intel would be interested in participating if a consortium emerges to own the British semiconductor and software design company Arm Ltd.
He said there had been talk in the industry about forming a consortium even before Nvidia Corp proposed to buy Arm from SoftBank Group Corp. That deal, valued at up to $80 billion, officially collapsed last week. SoftBank Group Corp cited regulatory hurdles and said it will seek to list the company.
Gelsinger said Intel would be happy to see Arm do an IPO or be owned by a consortium.
“We’re not big users of Arm, but we do use Arm. We’re going to get to be bigger users of Arm as we make it part of our IFS (foundry business) agenda as well,” he told Reuters on the sidelines of Intel’s Investor Day. “So if a consortium would emerge, we would probably be very favorable to participate in it in some manner.”
He also said that the acquisition of Tower Semiconductor would not change Intel’s European investment plans.
Earlier this week Intel announced it is buying Israeli chipmaker Tower for $5.4 billion, giving it access to more specialized production as it positions to take advantage of soaring semiconductor demand.
(Reporting By Jane Lanhee Lee; Editing by David Gregorio)
