I don't recall Qualcomm trying to buy ARM. That was Nvidia. (though, yes, it likely would also have been prevented if it had tried)
But they'd probably have a better (but still slim) chance of getting a purchase of Intel through. That'd be a more horizontal acquisition than a vertical one as Qualcomm doesn't make x86 chips so they can at least argue it wouldn't be anti-competitive.
That'd be a more horizontal acquisition than a vertical one as Qualcomm doesn't make x86 chips so they can at least argue it wouldn't be anti-competitive.
Not sure if AMD and Nvidia, will see it that way, and they will probably lobby to stop the deal.
It won't, the market share is generally complementary, not competitive, the sectors tend to be different (more or less until recently).
Mostly, if people are really scared into might fold (unlikely, but we don't know everything) then the ftc will roll out the red carpet for a player like Intel.
Doubt it will happen, qcomm is too smart, but it's not unthinkable, and it would give qcomm domination over US cpus, save hyperscalers.