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Qualcomm reportedly approached Intel about a takeover. Analysts say they could face political scrutiny and 'little overlap.'

Qualcomm approached Intel about a takeover deal, the WSJ reported. Meanwhile, Intel is planning a separate foundry subsidiary and staff cuts.

Giving the foundry more independence allows it to "not be tied to the ups and downs of the CPU market, all of which has fallen from grandeur in the last two years," said Dan Morgan, a senior trust portfolio manager at Synovus. When Intel's rival, Advanced Micro Devices, was in a similar challenging financial situation in the 2000s, it split its design and manufacturing businesses into two companies and sold its foundries off to an Abu Dhabi investment firm. Selling to a foreign company is not a "politically viable situation" due to supply chain national security concerns now, said Stacy Rasgon, a senior analyst at Bernstein Research.

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