Intel Wants to Buy Chip Designer SiFive

Intel Wants to Buy Chip Designer SiFive
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According to media reports, Intel approached chip design start-up SiFive regarding an investment or acquisition. Any of those moves could boost the US company’s open-source credentials and ambitions around the automotive sector.

Intel reportedly pitched a $2 billion takeover bid to SiFive, adding the start-up had also drawn interest from several other suitors. However, according to Bloomberg, the new business could be more interested in an investment deal than full sale.

SiFive licences its architectures to chip manufacturers and previously stated it works with six of the world’s top-ten semiconductor producers. Backers include SK Hynix and Qualcomm’s VC arm, with a funding round in 2020 adding $61 million to its coffers. SiFive is working on open-standard RISC-V architectures, with interest in the company reportedly sparked by a $40 billion takeover move by Nvidia for rival chip designer Arm in 2020.

In addition to bringing access to open-source architectures, a successful move for SiFive could boost Intel’s ambitions to compete in the automotive sector, which is another area of focus for the start-up. Its CEO Patrick Little previously led Qualcomm’s automotive industry initiatives, and under his leadership SiFive recently announced a deal with Renesas covering the sector.