(Reuters) – Intel Corp’s talks with SiFive Inc have ended without a deal and the chip designer startup will look for outside investment instead, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
According to the report, the talks fell apart as the companies could not agree on financial terms.
SiFive said it does not comment on speculations but confirmed it would continue to be Intel’s partner on new chip designs. Intel did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
In June, a source told Reuters that Intel was debating a possible offer to buy SiFive, a company closely associated with an open-source technology called RISC-V that is challenging the rise of Intel’s rival, Arm Ltd.
Arm, which is being acquired by Nvidia Corp for $40 billion, and SiFive sell intellectual property such as chip designs to others who ultimately produce the chips. Purchasing SiFive would have given Intel a library of intellectual property it could use both in its chips and offer to license to future customers, as it works to build a business by opening up its chip factories to outsiders.
(Reporting by Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru; Editing by Ramakrishnan M.)
