Intel Corp (INTC)

[Unkwn]

I think there will be quite a bit of money to be made from the foundry business.

Definitely, but that doesn't require Intel processor IPs. ARM processors are perfectly suited for that job and they are pretty cheap to have (maybe a few cent per chip). The problem there is that these controllers are not anywhere as generic as are mobile or PC processors. All these microcontrollers today are varying to a high degree from design to design to match all those different requirements on power, interfaces, price, connectivity, memory, temperature, reliability, performance etc. There is no one size fits all in that market. That is very different from the mobile or PC market. Sure, Intel could provide its processors as synthesizable IP (I think they do already with Quark if I remember correctly) but what is the benefit instead of using ARM? The ARM ecosystem is very dominant in embedded and the tools offer a large variety Intel isn't able to match. In addition, one often needs to do low level stuff on these platforms, nothing you wish to do with x86 assembler, which is just horrible. For embedded systems, there really isn't a sensible alternative to a small, low power RISC core with a good compiler and easy to write (inline) assembler. Intel is the wrong address here. That doesn't mean they can't win some more complex designs in that space, though.

Regarding the foundry business, they should just manufacture 3rd party designs on their depreciated fabs. It doesn't matter much for Intel's revenue or profit whether those are using ARM cores or Intel cores. I also don't see them as a threat to Intel's main processor business the same way as the current ARM Cortex A CPUs used in mobile. There are microcontrollers from many companies with large success but they never scratched Intel's business. ARM's Cortex A cores are different, but they are not used in controller type applications anyway (e.g. due to missing real time capabilities). That's Cortex M business - nice little low power processors by the way.