Intel’s nightmares come true: its new chip is unstable and two companies reportedly want to take over

It seems that Intel has gotten itself into another rut. Tom of Moore’s Law Is Dead previously claimed that Intel’s Raptor Lake stability issues have come back from the grave to haunt Arrow Lake, and while there was very little reason to disbelieve him, I still had a shred of hope that things weren’t as bad as they seem. Well, turns out, things were even worse; not only are reviewers reporting bad stability, but two more companies have reportedly expressed an interest in buying Intel.

Intel’s Arrow Lake chips get slammed in reviews

The news broke via Tom on Moore’s Law Is Dead, who posted a video covering everything happening on Intel’s front. As it turns out, things aren’t good.

Tom explains that Arrow Lake reviewers noticed instability issues with the chip, similar to the ones we saw with Raptor Lake. Tom believes this was due to Intel shoving the chip out the door prematurely instead of taking its time and doing proper checks. As such, Intel is earning itself a negative reputation where people are uncertain if the brand-new chip they just bought will slowly erode itself.

Tom believes the problem is likely due to a microcode issue, which correlates with what we heard earlier about potential causes. If this is true, Intel can fix the problem by publishing a software update and won’t need to recall chips. Still, it’s an awful spot for the company to be in, and something it needs to fix if it wants to pick itself up from its recent downfalls.

Samsung and Apple are reportedly interested in purchasing Intel

Source: Apple

Intel’s woes aren’t just consumer-related. When a big player in a market loses a lot of value, companies begin to circle to see if they can buy it out. We’ve already heard rumors that Qualcomm wanted to purchase Intel, and now Tom has heard “whispers” that Samsung and Apple want to take their shot. Tom makes it very clear that these are merely rumors circling among industry veterans, and are by no means a guarantee; however, it will be interesting to see if anything comes of it.