it was Qualcomm that was said to be sniffing aroundreckons that Arm knocked on Intel's door offering to buy the product half of the company. In other words, the bit of the company that designs the chips and not the foundry or manufacturing facilities.
In broad terms, I think that's only half correct. Arm probably wouldn't be allowed to by Intel. But Qualcomm might. How so? First, Intel is a US company of strategic importance. The US is very keen to have its own domestic cutting-edge chip design and manufacturing capabilities and Intel is the leading US player in that market, particularly on the manufacturing side. Second, Intel is currently experiencing an existential crisis.
The catch is that the same worries over Intel's future and its role as an important strategic asset for the US as a whole means the main concern in any buyout is likely to be nationality of any new owner rather than the risk of anti-trust. Perhaps the greater doubt is whether Qualcomm would want to take on all of Intel, rather than just the product side. Perhaps a case could be made for Qualcomm buying the product business and pumping all that capital into the newly independent fabs. Maybe add in a clause that Qualcomm has to keep using Intel Foundry for x86 chips for a while to give that money a little time to work its magic.