Amazon is in “advanced negotiations” to buy Texas Instruments’ mobile chip business, according to Israeli newspaper Calcalist, with the price expected to be in the billions of dollars range. If the deal goes ahead Amazon would take a step close to rivals Apple and Samsung by gaining the ability to design and manufacture its own mobile chips.
At the time of writing, Amazon and Texas Instruments had not responded to a request for comment. We’ll update this story with any response.
TI chips are used in various devices including Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet. Calcalist also notes that TI is a supplier to Amazon’s rival Barnes & Noble’s Nook e-reader. The paper previously reported TI was considering exiting the mobile chips business because of increased focus on integrated technology solutions, and also Intel’s entrance into the market. TI has lost out to rival chipmakers such as Qualcomm when it comes to gaining significant mobile market share (Qualcomm took 48 percent market share in the first half of this year, according to Strategy Analytics).
