Intel soars as Broadcom, TSMC acquisition chatter heats up

In the semiconductor space, Intel is the beautiful swan turned ugly duckling turned beautiful swan once again.

Shares are soaring as The Wall Street Journal reports that TSMC and Broadcom are looking at acquiring separate parts of the American chipmaker. It’s what you would expect: Broadcom is interested in its design business, while the Taiwanese company is interested in its manufacturing unit. TSMC is facing pressure from the White House to beef up its US chip production — purchasing Intel’s foundry business would certainly be one way to do that.

Reports of a possible acquisition of Intel, either in whole or as parts, have been swirling around the company for months. This chatter heating up was the key factor behind the stock’s more than 20% gain last week, its best performance since January 2000 (just prior to the bursting of the dot-com bubble).

Neither firm has submitted an offer to Intel, per WSJ.