Intel rumored to acquire fabless semiconductor SiFive for $2 billion

Intel is reportedly eyeing off acquiring semiconductor startup SiFive, with Bloomberg reporting that Intel has offered over $2 billion to acquire SiFive.

The site is reporting from anonymous sources "asking not to be identified because the matter is private", but that SiFive has "received takeover offers from multiple parties other than Intel" according to the source, who added that SiFive "has also fielded offers for an investment, which could be a preferable route".

SiFive raised funds back in 2020, where it was valued at around $500 million -- so it is a nice upgrade for the company to be fielding $2 billion acquisition offers just a year later. If you're not familiar with SiFive, the semiconductor startup designs chips based o the RISC-V architecture -- an open-source standard for semiconductor design that makes it much cheaper, and much more open to customers wanting to build chips.

Intel acquiring the company makes sense given the huge injection of silicon dreams coming to the US in the coming decade, with the $200B+ investment into US chip manufacturing. Intel acquiring SiFive is another notch in that belt, and will be a sparring partner for NVIDIA and its recent acquisition of ARM for $40 billion.