After a few lousy months, Intel finally has a better week

Intel has announced two new contracts and was reportedly approached by asset manager Apollo Global Management with an investment opportunity and a takeover offer from Qualcomm.

US chip maker Intel has grabbed the headlines in recent months, mostly in a negative context.

While the company’s announcement of Lunar Lake processors was promising, it was a drop in the bucket compared to the broader wave of bad news, including employee layoffs, a lawsuit from its investors, and problems with its Raptor Lake processor line.

Last week, however, Intel shared slightly better news with its customers and investors. Company CEO Pat Gelsinger announced that Intel was awarded an up to $3 billion deal with the US Army to develop a "Secure Enclave" for microelectronics and a new agreement with Amazon to produce chips for Amazon Web Services.

But the most intriguing development came at the end of the week. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Qualcomm approached Intel with a buy offer.

If the deal goes through, it would be the biggest-ever technology takeover deal, surpassing the previous record of Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Blizzard.

Hours after the report, Bloomberg announced another potential offer. Alternative asset manager Apollo Global Management is considering an up to $5 billion investment into Intel.

Sources, however, did emphasize that the deals may not result in an agreement.

Qualcomm’s acquisition, in particular, appears unlikely. If Intel decide to proceed with Qualcomm’s offer, it would have to get a regulatory approval for what would be one of the biggest M&A acquisition deals in history.

There are additional questions regarding the potential deal, such as an x86/x86-64 cross-licensing patent agreement between Intel and AMD, as pointed out by The Register.

Apollo’s investment offer, on the other hand, looks more appealing to Intel. The offer shows support for Intel’s turnaround strategy, and may provide additional money for Gelsinger’s reforms.

As Bloomberg points out, the companies already have a relationship. In June, Intel agreed to sell Apollo a stake in a joint venture that controls a plant in Ireland for $11 billion.

Ever since Gelsinger took over at Intel in 2021, he has been pushing the idea of a comeback. However, the company has faced a number of setbacks.