Rumor: Intel is considering the acquisition of AMD

[Sinder]

Big if true

 

[Remij]

Nvidia should buy AMD :)

 

[EkStatiC]

That sounds way too crazy.

Not to much if you know the past of those companies.

 

[entremet]

Monopoly

Monopolies are not technically illegal. They are many functional monopolies.

 

[mutantmagnet]

Would this mean that Intel would have an effective monopoly?

Technically no.

When it comes to consumer products the rise of ARM undercuts the importance of x86 processors.

When it comes to servers IBM is a big competitor and ARM is starting to compete there too.

When it comes to supercomputing it won't do a damn thing among the actual big players in that space.

 

[Hobbes]

Is that even legal?

No, this is against U.S. Antitrust laws, and this article shouldn't even have been written because it literally cannot happen. It's not a might, maybe, if, when, it's literally not happening. The FTC wouldn't allow it at all. I don't know what c-level executive they're talking to, but it clearly is someone who knows fuck all about antitrust laws and Intel's previous acts of breaching antitrust laws with its rebate scandal.

 

[VariantX]

Yo, WTF? Fuck off man. There would be no competition to speak of if this happens. Especially when we finally have some in the CPU dept.

 

[DomsPlaying]

Is that even legal?

*Not sure if technically illegal,* but it probably would never be approved by regulators due to competition and monopoly concerns.

 

[LordRuyn]

OP should have clarified, I read the entire article while on the metro a few hours ago. This is all speculation, the writer says so:

One thing we must understand, though, is that people in the industry love to speculate on potential mergers and acquisitions.

and one more quote just so everyone can set their mind at ease:

Asked about the potential of an Intel-AMD merger, Krewell told us to “file it under fiction.” He noted, “It would give Intel complete dominance of PCs and servers and be considered anticompetitive.” Jon Peddie, President of Jon Peddie Research, also told us, “Not in a million trillion light years.”

Both noted that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) would never allow it.

End of the day, this is all theory crafting, something people in the industry love doing.
Yes, some say it could be a remote possibility with ARM entering the server market, but again it's all speculation

 

[Atom Heart Mother]

US government wouldn't let this. AMD and Intel are the biggest competitors in their market. If they consolidate it'll turn computer CPUs into a monopoly.

 

[tyfon]

Zen 2 got Intel shook.

My thoughts exactly.
I know what I'm buying next time I upgrade my computer at least :)

 

[brokeastronaut]

Not to much if you know the past of those companies.

Do you think it could possibly happen?

 

[antonz]

Would never be allowed to happen. people saying ARM etc. would mean its allowed are not even close to being accurate. There is no major ARM manufacturer providing chips to the consumer market. There are only 2 Consumer Market companies. AMD and Intel.

 

[AuthenticM]

Is that even legal?

it shouldn't be

 

[NarohDethan]

I don't care about AMD products but this is bad news, I don't want Intel eat the CPU market (and soon the GPU market).

 

[kageroo]

Wait, I really thought this is about GPUs... it would make a lot of sense.

Can't they do that? Just buy off the GPU branch and leave CPUs to AMD?

 

[i-Jest]

In America, with enough fuck you money and connections where it counts, you can do pretty much anything. With that said, I want to see where this goes.

 

[Damaniel]

The odds of that passing legal muster are approximately zero, even in a pro-business Trump administration. Intel would own effectively 100% of the desktop and laptop CPU market.

 

[Black_Stride]

Not even possible.

Intel and AMD are the only consumer level CPU makers, them merging into one company would legit be a monopoly.
Zero percent chance of that happening.

 

[InsaneTiger]

In a world with intelligent people, Intel would be forced to spin off some part of their company as to not have a complete monopoly.

We don't live in that world. Let the merger commence.

 

[Dekuman]

Intel would have to spin off the AMD CPU business at minimum and face restrictions on how it handles iGPUs

Would would be left? One time technology transfer

 

[eddy]

If you're gonna try it, current US management seems like the one to try under.

In the real world though, I don't believe this for a second. Maybe Radeon group. Maybe.

 

[bsigg]

Yea, this wouldn't hold up in courts.

 

[Roukira]

Lol that title caught me off guard. This is probably the wildest rumor I've read in a while.

 

[Adam_Roman]

Save us, Herfindahl index

 

[low-G]

People have way too much faith in the US government protecting the traditional PC and video game console market.

 

[jroc74]

It's crazy that the first place my mind went was for the graphic cards, totally overlooked the CPU implications, lol.

Sounds too risky to be true.

 

[ChippyTurtle]

Read the article, the writer admits its a sort of thought exercise.

 

[mysteriousmage09]

It will never happen.

 

[Zerokoolpsx]

Wouldn't that be a monopoly at that point? No way its legal.

 

[BarcaTheGreat]

People have way too much faith in the US government protecting the traditional PC and video game console market.

Doesn't matter what the "market" is, this will create a monopoly and there's a good chance this doesn't get regulatory approval.

 

[kageroo]

It's crazy that the first place my mind went was for the graphic cards, totally overlooked the CPU implications, lol.

Sounds too risky to be true.

Because it makes a lot of sense.

Intel Radeon. Just watch. :p

 

[milad]

surely FTC would shut it down.

 

[low-G]

Doesn't matter what the "market" is, this will create a monopoly and there's a good chance this doesn't get regulatory approval.

As someone else said, there are tons of monopolies in many industries right now.

 

[Falchion]

Oh god no.

 

[Sheepinator]

No, this is against U.S. Antitrust laws, and this article shouldn't even have been written because it literally cannot happen. It's not a might, maybe, if, when, it's literally not happening. The FTC wouldn't allow it at all. I don't know what c-level executive they're talking to, but it clearly is someone who knows fuck all about antitrust laws and Intel's previous acts of breaching antitrust laws with its rebate scandal.

You said it better than I was about to. Sounds like clickbait to me.

 

[KojiKnight]

Doesn't matter what the "market" is, this will create a monopoly and there's a good chance this doesn't get regulatory approval.

But where does the monopoly part come in? Mobile computing (phones, and tablets) are almost all not x86 and have an ever increasing share of the market. Servers are losing ground to ARM and the trend will only continue. Game consoles? You could say that AMD already has a 'monopoly' so switching that from one team to another isn't going to do anything (especially with ARM/Nvidia making ways into it via Switch)

The only place you could say that'd be an issue is with desktop PCs, but even apple is starting to transition away from x86 for it's Mac line to hardware it has in house. PC gaming will be the last real bastion in that regard, which isn't a small market mind you... but I wouldn't be surprised if in the next 5 years we see high end PC games supporting both x86 and mac's hardware.

x86 isn't doomed (yet) but it's far from being the center of the computing world like it was even 10 years ago.

(note, my gaming PC is a ryzen 1600 and a RX580, I'm not standing for Intel nor do I particularly want x86 hardware to come from a single vendor. I think people are just putting too much stock on this monopoly defense).

 

[console lover]

ARM powered ps6 here we come

 

[lasthope106]

That's not legal OP.

 

[delete12345]

To be honest, the first thing that popped into my mind was, "it sounded so far-fetched, I would actually like to see this happening, so I can prove to myself I live in a parallel timeline."

But it's on the brink of illegal monopoly. Unless they are attempting for a duopoly.

 

[Nappael]

Now that's what I call a monopoly

 

[Taker34]

I mean I’m considering becoming the emperor of the world. That doesn’t mean it’ll happen.

 

[Daffy Duck]

EETimes: Bullshit inside

 

[wwm0nkey]

Yeah no way this would be approved

 

[The Bookerman]

I will make it legal.

I was waiting for this.

 

[KennyX]

No, this is against U.S. Antitrust laws, and this article shouldn't even have been written because it literally cannot happen. It's not a might, maybe, if, when, it's literally not happening. The FTC wouldn't allow it at all. I don't know what c-level executive they're talking to, but it clearly is someone who knows fuck all about antitrust laws and Intel's previous acts of breaching antitrust laws with its rebate scandal.

Not sure what you're talking about, this is not 1990 anymore.
X86 is not the predominant and only computing market anymore.
Neither in the consumer space, nor in the commercial space.

There is Nvidia with a huge GPU compute presence. There is Qualcomm and there is ARM in general. Apple is doing their own designs. Mediatek and Samsung.
So for both foundry and designing microprocessors there is still plenty of competition everywhere.

There would most likely be some restrictions and requirements, but in no way is this a 100% not possible situtation.

 

[Strafer]

haha no :)

 

[BlackJace]

I L L E G A L

 

[NESpowerhouse]

That, I think, is the most far-fetched rumour I've heard in years.

Almost as crazy as the rumors about Sony/Microsoft purchasing AMD from like 2015.

Why is everyone wanting to purchase AMD all of a sudden?

 

[gcwy]

CPU monopoly would be super good for consumers

This is sarcasm, right? I hope to god it is.