Broadcom may not be able to buy Intel because of its deal with AMD

According to Tom's Hardware , Intel has been struggling financially and in terms of performance for years, and there has been a lot of speculation about the future of the company. Most recently, there has been talk of Broadcom being interested in buying Intel's product business. In addition, the US government is reportedly considering requiring TSMC to operate Intel Foundry's manufacturing arm through a joint venture between Intel and the Taiwanese chipmaker. However, a major obstacle that many people overlook is the extensive cross-licensing agreement between Intel and AMD, according to analysis from Digits-to-Dollars.

The cross-licensing agreement between AMD and Intel, which covers CPUs, GPUs, x86 instructions and key extensions like SSE, AVX, could become a major hurdle for Broadcom in its Intel acquisition.

PHOTO: WCCFTECH SCREENSHOT

The cross-licensing agreement between AMD and Intel (which has included several different agreements, the most recent of which was signed in 2009) allows both parties to use each other's patents and avoid intellectual property infringement lawsuits. The agreement covers both companies' entire product portfolios, from CPUs to GPUs to other technologies. This allows AMD to produce processors based on the x86 architecture with Intel's instruction set extensions, while Intel can integrate AMD's innovations into its products.

However, the agreement also imposes strict restrictions. Neither company is allowed to develop processors compatible with the other's sockets or motherboards. In particular, the agreement will immediately terminate if either company is merged, acquired, or enters into a joint venture that changes ownership. At that point, the two parties are required to renegotiate new licensing terms.

The agreement covers not only the x86 instruction set architecture and extensions like SSE and AVX, but also GPU, DPU, and FPGA technologies. Therefore, if the agreement is canceled, it will affect almost all of AMD and Intel's products, forcing the two companies to renegotiate.

The big question is whether AMD would actually want to sign a similar deal with Broadcom. Broadcom, a company primarily known for its networking and wireless solutions, has expanded into storage, cybersecurity, and infrastructure software. In particular, Broadcom has emerged as a leading developer of custom AI processors, partnering with most major cloud providers.

The acquisition of Intel’s CPU business would make Broadcom a strong competitor to AMD, especially since Broadcom owns both CPUs and AI processors. This makes Broadcom a bigger threat to AMD than Intel, which currently has no clear AI strategy.

While there are suggestions that AMD could ask Broadcom to help it fight Nvidia by developing “AMD-friendly” interconnect solutions, Broadcom’s current priority appears to be to consolidate its position in the data center market, where it lacks a CPU business. Once it owns the CPU business, Broadcom will likely focus on developing its own data center AI platform rather than supporting AMD.

Overall, if the Broadcom and Intel deal goes through, AMD will face more challenges, not only in competing with Intel but also with a new, stronger rival in the high-tech market.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/broadcom-co-the-khong-mua-duoc-intel-vi-thoa-thuan-voi-amd-185250220112236933.htm