Intel CEO Paul Otellini says the world’s largest semiconductor company could one day count Apple and even Qualcomm among its customers. Unlike most chip designers, Intel (INTC) owns its own manufacturing facilities, so it has the ability to make chips for its competitors as well as for itself. Otellini said his company could consider even its biggest rivals as potential customers, if the contracts made sense.
Otellini said that it might be easier for him personally to supply Apple than Qualcomm. Qualcomm has a dominance in the mobile semiconductor space that approaches that of Intel in the PC semiconductor market, and now the San Diego company appears to be gunning for Intel in the PC market. Intel, meanwhile, is hard at work to establish its chips for smartphones and tablets. The first smartphone powered by an Intel microprocessor goes on sale in India next week.
Intel’s first quarter earnings were off 13% from a year ago, but still ahead of analysts’ expectations. The company’s ownership of its own foundries could be a major advantage in the months ahead, as Qualcomm and AMD both said this week that the foundries that make their chips are facing capacity shortages.
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