Intel Terminates Tower Semi Deal Due To China

Actually, Intel wanted to buy more relevance in the field of contract manufacturing of semiconductors with the takeover of the chip manufacturer Tower Semiconductor for a price of more than five billion dollars. Nothing will come of it, because China’s authorities let the deal burst.

Sentence with X

As Intel confirmed today after a series of reports from various media, the company will not take over Tower Semiconductor. As a reason for the waiver, the US semiconductor giant referred to the lack of approval from the Chinese competition authorities, without which the purchase of Tower Semi would not be possible.

It was not possible to obtain approval from the Chinese regulators within the necessary timeframe. Intel had already announced the takeover in the spring 2022. The processor manufacturer wanted to pay a total of 5.4 billion dollars for this and gain a presence in the area of ​​specialized chips with the purchase.

Tower Semiconductor is primarily active as a producer of chips for special applications such as radio chips or industrial sensors. Because Intel is not going through with the takeover now, the company has to pay 353 million dollars as a so-called termination fee. The lack of approval from the Chinese authorities is also expensive for Intel in this respect.

The whole thing also has consequences for Tower Semiconductor, because the company’s share price collapsed after Intel’s renunciation became known. The Chinese competition authorities have not yet commented on the subject. Whether the US government’s efforts to restrict China’s access to state-of-the-art chip manufacturing technologies played a role, in this case, is still open and will probably remain questionable.