Ex-Intel chip designer weighs in on company's uncertain fate

Jim Keller, a former senior vice president and lead silicon designer at Intel, has some thoughts about his former employer as there are rumors that the company is up for sale.

Keller worked at Intel from 2018 to 2020, and before that worked for Tesla leading the Autopilot hardware team. Before that, he was at Apple where his team designed the A4 and A5 chips used for iPhones and iPads. Keller spent most of his career at AMD designing the company's Zen processors in the 2010s and the Athlon processor in the '90s. He is the current CEO of Tenstorrent, a company developing AI processors.

Earlier in the week, Keller tweeted that the rumor "fire sale" for parts of Intel had made him sad considering the company's reputation as a chip maker.

"You build value by having a great goal and a team that loves working to the goal," he posted on Tuesday. "Intel built the fastest CPUs on the best process. This is not unlocking shareholder value, it's a fire sale. It makes me sad."

Then on Thursday, Keller made another tweet about Intel's situation.

"The trap for Intel and many others. Innovation makes money. Money drives market cap. Market cap needs to be supported. Innovation is risky. Promote careful people. Stop innovation," he tweeted.

Is Intel being sold soon?

Multiple companies are currently interested in acquiring different parts of Intel.

Chip designer Broadcom is reportedly interested in buying Intel's chip designing and marketing business, according to the Wall Street Journal. A move like this could make Broadcom the definitive leader in the chip designing sector as it would take over Intel's PC and server processor business. However, it would need a partner to take over other parts of the company.

That partner could be semiconductor maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC). TSMC is reportedly looking for U.S. manufacturing plants to make its chip to avoid the possible 25% tariffs President Donald Trump has proposed on silicon made overseas. Intel has multiple plants in the U.S., and TSMC is reportedly interested in acquiring them.

Intel's programmable chip division is also on the market. Private equity firm Silver Lake Management is in talks to acquire a majority stake in Intel's programmable chip unit, according to Bloomberg. Intel is reportedly fielding offers to help turn the company around, but its ultimate plan remains unclear, as it has been selling off stakes in other businesses since last year.

Intel did announce earlier in the month that it was planning to do more in the PC gaming handheld market. So far, AMD has been the dominant processor in handheld machines, but Intel says it plans on beefing up its staff.