[Dalewyn]

It's not happening though, an acquisition of Intel means the end of x86 due to cross-licensing terms between Intel and AMD which stipulate they all terminate upon either party being acquired.

Granted, Qualcomm has interests in ARM so this might actually be what they want: Embrace, No Extending, Extinguish.

[rbanffy]

> an acquisition of Intel means the end of x86 due to cross-licensing terms between Intel and AMD which stipulate they all terminate upon either party being acquired

I believe Intel's licenses to AMD's IP would terminate, but not the other way around.

[chasil]

AMD developed the 64-bit instruction set, so perhaps they could keep it.

I'm sure there would be plenty of lawfare, though.

[Dalewyn]

Intel and AMD literally cannot manufacture x86 CPUs without the other, their cross-licensing and dependencies go both ways beyond amd64.

If Qualcomm somehow actually convinces Intel to sell, that means Intel is immediately out of business because all they (could) make are x86 CPUs. AMD would likewise become a zombie overnight with only their Radeon GPUs remaining on their catalog.

It's far more likely for AMD to come and bail Intel out if things really came to that.

What's embarassing about this is that Qualcomm could actually go and ask Intel if they're selling without it sounding like a complete joke. That signifies how far Intel has fallen, Qualcomm trolled Intel and actually got away with it.

[Mountain_Skies]

Highly likely that anti-trust regulators would make licensing of x86 a requirement for letting the deal go through.

[phonon]

Patents on x86-64 are long expired....did Intel really use much else from AMD?

[icedchai]

You know agreements can be amended, right? Nothing is set in stone when big money is involved.

[Dalewyn]

Whoever wants to buy out Intel needs to convince both Intel and AMD that the subsequent arrangement will be better than the monopoly-but-not-a-monopoly they enjoy today.

I'm willing to bet AMD would sooner spend money bailing Intel out to keep that going first before entertaining thoughts about sharing their cake.

[icedchai]

Intel isn’t in bad enough shape to need a bail out from their main competitor.