Intel's sale plan seems to be facing an insurmountable wall - the extensive cross-licensing agreement between it and AMD. The existence of this agreement means that any sale or joint venture plan of Intel must be approved by AMD, otherwise it will be difficult to move forward.

Under the dual pressure of financial and product crises, chip manufacturing giant Intel has recently been reported to be considering selling part of its business, or even selling it as a whole. However, these discussions seem to have overlooked a key factor: the extensive and complex cross-licensing agreement between Intel and AMD. According to the agreement, the cross-licensing between Intel and AMD covers the entire product line of both parties, including core areas such as CPU, GPU, and FPGA. AMD has the right to use Intel's instruction set extensions to produce processors based on the x86 architecture, and Intel can also integrate AMD's technological innovations. This cooperation model not only promotes the technological progress of both parties, but also effectively avoids potential infringement risks. However, there is a key clause in the agreement: if either party merges, is acquired, or enters a joint venture with a change of ownership, the agreement will automatically terminate. This means that if Intel is acquired or forms a joint venture with other companies, the two parties must renegotiate and sign a new licensing agreement. This process is not only time-consuming and labor-intensive, but may also have a significant impact on the product lines and technical cooperation of both parties.

TomsHardware's report

TomsHardware's report pointed out that losing the cross-licensing agreement would be disastrous for both parties. The agreement covers a variety of extended technologies of the x86 architecture, such as SSE and AVX, which are critical to the products of both parties. In addition, the agreement also involves other technologies, which almost affects all products of Intel and AMD. It is worth noting that Broadcom, as one of the potential acquirers, is mainly known for its network solutions and wireless technologies, and is a major player in the storage, network security and infrastructure software markets. If Broadcom acquires Intel, AMD may not easily compromise in the negotiations for a new cross-licensing agreement, which will make the negotiations extremely difficult. In summary, Intel's sale plan must not only consider financial and strategic factors, but also deal with the major challenge of a complex cross-licensing agreement with AMD. Due to the existence of the agreement, any sale or joint venture plan must obtain AMD's consent. Although this process is full of uncertainty, it also provides both parties with an opportunity to re-examine and optimize cooperation. Through active negotiations, Intel and AMD are expected to explore new cooperation models, promote technological innovation and industry development, and thus occupy a more advantageous position in the global semiconductor market.

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