In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, I’m joined by my colleagues Daniel Newman and Fred McClimans to discuss the reports of Intel Corp being in talks to buy semiconductor manufacturer Global Foundries for about $30 billion. There’s no doubt the silicon industry is in the midst of a crisis — limited fab capabilities and supply chain disruptions (due to trade conflicts and the ongoing pandemic) have impacted chip companies, their customers, and end consumers the world over. Would an acquisition of this nature rock the chip industry or make it better?

In this conversation we covered a lot of ground, including:

• Intel’s commitment announced just a short while ago, to expand its advanced chip manufacturing capacity by spending as much as $20 billion investing in U.S. factories
• GlobalFoundries ownership, and whether that’s a benefit or a bonus as it competes for the $52 billion budget recent approved by the U.S. Senate to try and fix the semiconductor supply chain.
• The NVIDIA/Arm deal and whether this is a defensive move by intel, along with thoughts on AMD
• What regulators might think about this, and how it’s not just the U.S. regulators that would play a role here.
• How likely it is that GlobalFoundries would get a piece of the $52 billion recently approved by the U.S. senate, earmarked to help fix the semiconductor supply chain.
• What stands out about the proposed deal, and where the problems are

We close the show with Fred and Daniel’s predictions on what chances they see of this actually happening and you’ll have to watch or listen to the episode for those deets. All in, this will definitely be interesting to watch play out.