Intel's new "financial backer" is here? It has been reported that Silver Lake will acquire a majority stake in the "future core" Altera

Amidst rampant rumors of an acquisition, Intel is reportedly in talks with a potential new "financial backer."

On February 18, Tuesday, Eastern Time, Bloomberg cited sources familiar with the matter stating that private equity firm Silver Lake Management is in exclusive negotiations to acquire a majority stake in Intel's subsidiary—programmable logic device (PLD) manufacturer Altera, and is close to reaching an agreement, although the specific transaction scale has yet to be determined, as Silver Lake is reviewing the details of the agreement.

Neither Intel nor Silver Lake has commented on the above news, but investors reacted positively. Following the news, Intel's stock price, which had already risen over 10%, further expanded its gains, reaching a daily high with an intraday increase of over 16.7%, marking the largest intraday gain in nearly five years, and ultimately closing up nearly 16.1%.

This is not the first time in recent months that Intel has been reported to be selling its stake in Altera. In September last year, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger stated that the company's leadership believes Altera is a core part of Intel's future. However, Intel later revealed that it was considering selling part of its stake in Altera as part of a "self-rescue" plan.

At the end of October last year, Gelsinger disclosed during an earnings call that negotiations with potential investors regarding Altera's business were expected to conclude early this year, and he was also evaluating similar options for other Intel businesses. In November last year, reports indicated that programmable device supplier Lattice Semiconductor and several acquisition firms were interested in Altera. However, some interested buyers valued Altera at only $9 billion, far below Intel's acquisition price of $16.7 billion in 2015.

On Tuesday, Intel's stock opened high and continued to rise, following news that two companies were considering acquiring parts of its business.

From reports over the weekend, it appears that Intel may be split up, as TSMC and Broadcom are both considering potential transactions with Intel.

TSMC has been exploring the possibility of controlling part or all of Intel's chip factories, potentially as part of an investor consortium or other structure. Broadcom has been closely monitoring Intel's chip design and marketing business and has had informal discussions with Intel's advisors, with plans to make an acquisition offer once it finds a manufacturing partner.

Last week, Intel received positive news, with its stock price cumulatively rising nearly 24%, marking the largest weekly gain since January 2000, reflecting investors' expectations for collaboration between TSMC and Intel.

Last week, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence stated that the Trump administration would ensure that the most advanced artificial intelligence hardware is manufactured in the United States; Intel's new Core Ultra 9 275HX processor successfully topped the PassMark benchmark software, becoming the most powerful laptop processor in terms of overall performance Last week, some media reported that TSMC is considering whether to acquire a controlling stake in Intel's factories at the request of officials from the Trump administration; supply chain news indicates that Intel is exploring the possibility of splitting its semiconductor manufacturing division and establishing a joint venture with TSMC.

In addition, TSMC officially announced that it will hold its board meeting in the United States for the first time in nearly 38 years link, combined with the aforementioned news of cooperation between Intel and TSMC, it shows that the current Trump administration's efforts to rescue Intel have become an industry consensus.

Wall Street Journal later mentioned that the market was optimistic about the potential cooperation between Intel and TSMC last week, and both Bloomberg and The New York Times confirmed the related news, but Citigroup analysts believe that the likelihood of success for such an arrangement is low. A White House official quoted by Reuters also denied this claim, stating that the Trump administration is unlikely to support foreign entities operating Intel's factories