Intel has announced that it’s licensing technology from rival ARM Holdings Plc.
The two chipmakers unveiled the agreement Tuesday at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco. The accord will let Intel offer third-party semiconductor companies its most advanced 10-nanometer production lines for manufacturing the complex chips usually used in smartphones.
Intel, which receives most of its profits from its processor business, has failed to gain ground in the emerging smartphone market, which until now has been dominated by ARM. Under Chief Executive Officer Brian Krzanich, Intel is trying to persuade other chipmakers to use its factories for their production. Adding licenses for ARM’s technology could open up that business to fabricating chips based on those designs for companies such as Qualcomm Inc. and Apple Inc., which now have their chips produced by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and others.
The move comes as the PC market continues to decline alongside the server-chip market has begun to slow. The company has begun offering foundry services and outsourced manufacturing.
Indicating that those fortunes may be changing, Intel announced that LG Electronics Inc., South Korea’s second-biggest phone maker behind Samsung Electronics Co., will use Intel’s foundry business to manufacture 10 nanometer mobile-phone parts.
In short, if you have capacity to sell, it doesn’t hurt to put it on the market.
Via Bloomberg