Despite the fact that it is a relatively small company compared to the big competitors in the industry, Intel was interested in buying Tower Semiconductor, due to its experience supplying chips to large companies such as Broadcom.
The statement did not detail aspects of the regulators that did not allow the acquisition to take place, but Bloomberg reported that the Chinese authorities were responsible for the transaction not being approved.
The tension between the United States and China in the field of chips, mentions the American media, would have been the main reason why the acquisition of the manufacturing company was not approved.
It should be remembered that the government of President Joe Biden began a strategy to match semiconductor manufacturing, since it is concentrated in Asia, while Biden’s objective is not to depend on this region in times of crisis, such as the covid-19 pandemic. .
In addition, the Biden administration has also implemented certain strategies that have increased the conflict between the two nations on a technological level, such as implementing export restrictions in an attempt to isolate the Asian country from chips from US companies.
For its part, China decided to restrict the export of certain metals that are necessary in the manufacture of chips, in addition to having already prohibited its companies from buying products from American firms, such as Micron.
In this sense, Intel planned a strategy of multiple investments abroad, called IDM 2.0, with the purpose of diversifying the regions where they produce their chips and thus boost their Intel Foundry Services (IFS) division, whose main objective is to compete with rivals. in the semiconductor foundry, such as TSMC or Samsung.
“We are executing well on our roadmap to regain transistor performance and power efficiency leadership by 2025…Intel is investing to deliver the geographically diverse and resilient manufacturing footprint the world needs,” said the Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger in a statement.