View: Intel has few good options as investor demands break-up

SAN FRANCISCO: Activist investor Daniel Loeb wants Intel Corp to consider splitting its huge chip manufacturing operations from its chip design and development business, but analysts say doing so could weaken both businesses unless the firm can form a joint venture.

For more than 50 years, Intel has operated on the idea that both designing and manufacturing its own semiconductors produce the best results.

It has stuck to that even as most of the global industry has moved to a model where U.S. companies like Nvidia Corp and Qualcomm Inc design chips that are then built by specialized chip manufacturers in Asia, led by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.