Chip Buyout Renesas to buy Intersil

If you've been following along here for any length of time, you may remember in May of this year, and interesting headline about Intersil, and their laser heads up display. They had an answer to a technical question. They have been cooperating with Microvision -- to what degree, and how much currently, we don't know. The word was that a temperature specification had been achieved that would allow automotive laser Heads Up Displays. (It gets very cold and very hot in automobiles.)

So, this purchase is of interest. Not sure what it means yet, but these two companies seem to have some compatibilities -- and it will probably have an effect on Microvision. 

E_Week

Japanese chip maker Renesas reportedly is in the final stages of a deal to buy U.S. rival Intersil for about $3 billion as it looks to bolster its position in the growing automotive technology space.

Reports from numerous news sites this week said the company, which competes with the likes of NXP and Infineon and is seeing other chip makers like Intel and Nvidia pushing their way into the autonomous vehicle space, could announce the acquisition soon.

The deal would continue a consolidation trend in the semiconductor industry as chip makers buy rivals to build out their capabilities and address such emerging trends as self-driving cars, data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, the internet of things (IoT), mobility and the cloud. High-profile acquisitions in recent years include Intel buying programmable chip maker Altera for $16.7 billion, NXP acquiring Freescale for $12 billion and Avago Technologies grabbing Broadcom for $37 billion in a move to broaden its capabilities in such areas as IoT.

INTERSIL Website

Qualcomm China Deal

Interesting that the biggest player in mobile chips, is doing a deal in China -- and ending up with a new Chinese company name. I'm not sure what it means, but this kind of deal may shed some light about what is going on with Qualper. 

AT Motley Fool -- Much more at the source

Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM), the largest mobile chipmaker in the world, recently formed a new joint venture in China with the Guizhou Province government. The new company, Guizhou Huaxintong Semiconductor Technology, will design, develop, and manufacture chipsets for servers. Qualcomm will provide research support and server chip technology licenses to the joint venture.

The company will launch with an initial investment of 1.85 billion RMB ($280 million), and be 55% owned by the Chinese government, and 45% owned by Qualcomm. In a press release, Qualcomm President Derek Aberle stated that, although Qualcomm had worked with its Chinese partners for more than two decades, the joint venture "represents a significant increase in our collaboration in China."

This move could help ARM Holdings (NASDAQ:ARMH), which provides the chip designs on which Qualcomm's data centers are based, and harm Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), which has faced multiple challenges in the Chinese data-center market. Let's take a closer look at Qualcomm's data-center ambitions, and how it could turn China into the next big battleground for server chip dominance.