Another rumored partner has dismissed the prospect of an arrangement with Intel, suggesting the company won’t get outside help with its turnaround

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan appears to be adopting a go-it-alone strategy as he embarks on rebooting the chip giant.

Intel Corp.’s stock recently rode a wave of enthusiasm around potential deals or partnerships that could make its turnaround less onerous. But in the last few weeks, chief executives from two companies rumored to be interested in those sorts of arrangements implied they wouldn’t be working with the chip giant.

That’s another sign that CEO Lip-Bu Tan will be going it alone as he tries to restore Intel’s glory.

Last month, Broadcom Inc. CEO Hock Tan said he was not interested in embarking on any big merger deals because he is “too busy” with artificial intelligence. Reports had previously suggested Broadcom was interested in buying Intel’s design and products business.

Then on Thursday, CC Wei, the CEO of Intel’s biggest rival in chip manufacturing, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., said on that company’s earnings call that he is not engaged in joint ventures or technology transfers with any U.S. companies.

“I am fairly certain Intel is going it alone,” said Dan Hutcheson, vice chair of TechInsights Inc., a semiconductor-research firm.

Lip-Bu Tan has already made one big strategic move since he was named CEO of Intel last month. The company announced this week that the chip maker would be selling off a majority stake in its Altera business to private-equity firm Silver Lake Partners. Intel is selling the stake at a loss but leaving room for upside by retaining a 49% share in the company, which customizes its field programmable gate array (FPGA) chips for the communications industry.

Intel has a terrible track record with acquisitions, including that of Altera, whose revenue declined under Intel’s auspices. Tan seems to recognize that the company needs to focus on its innate strengths and get back to its founding entrepreneurial spirit by driving innovation from within.

Even with all of those hints, clues and comments in mind, Wall Street appears to be disappointed that Intel won’t be getting much help from outside. It is now in a confusing and volatile environment caused by the Trump administration’s tariffs, which analysts believe have led to some stockpiling of chips by PC makers and others.

In addition, as Bernstein Research analyst Stacy Rasgon pointed out, Intel could get hit both ways with tariffs, as its products go both into and out of China.

Intel’s shares jumped earlier this year after initial comments from the Trump administration led investors to believe it was trying to negotiate a joint venture for Intel with TSMC. But in recent weeks, after the market’s initial meltdown on Trump’s tariffs, Intel shares have whipsawed and are now down 22% for the year, despite going on a tear in February and March.

Wall Street may get some clarity when Intel reports its first-quarter earnings on April 24. The earnings call will be Tan’s first with analysts, and he will have to convince them that Intel has the cash and the support of customers to continue on its solo path. The company reported its first net loss in decades during 2024, and its foundry business is not expected to break even until 2027.

Some investors are also expecting Intel to embark on further job cuts, as the company still has a massive workforce. Some former executives have expressed dismay about its slow-moving culture, endless PowerPoints and many layers of middle management.

As Tan stated in his first public appearance earlier this month, he has been getting a lot of feedback from Intel’s customers and partners. He has also pledged to bring a startup mentality to Intel, refocus on its engineering culture and put customers first.

Analysts are hoping that new mentality — which would be a major culture shift at a company that has been famously arrogant in the past — will also attract new customers to its foundry business, which is losing money and needs to fill its fabs.

Tim Arcuri, a UBS analyst, said in a note to clients earlier this week that Nvidia Corp. and Broadcom are engaged in talking to Intel about manufacturing, but he noted that their interests are “tied more to Intel’s 18AP node (a power optimized version of 18A) which timing-wise lags 18A by about a year, meaning that Intel still needs a way to bridge the next few years in terms of cash flow and resources.”

The company’s 18A manufacturing process is just now rolling out, with Intel’s Panther Lake processors for high-performance notebooks expected to be the first in volume production on that process. “Foundry’s ability to attract external customers for 18A has remained limited,” Arcuri said.

Intel’s cash position at the end of last year was $8.2 billion.

“I think the next logical step for Intel is to engage in talks with the top fabless chip companies — Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom and Qualcomm — and see if there is an appetite to have an interest in a joint ownership venture,” Dan Morgan, a senior portfolio manager at the Synovus Trust Company, said in an email Thursday. “This would encourage these fabless players to use the U.S. based facilities [versus] TSMC’s.”

Morgan said that one of the many questions he has gotten from investors is about Tan’s overall strategy at Intel. In an earnings preview note to investors, he noted that Tan is very qualified, especially after his “transformative impact” on Cadence Design Systems Inc.. “With that said,” Morgan wrote, “he may not have the time that the previous CEO had to reboot Intel’s fledgling AI chip business … reclaim leadership in the CPU space … and turn a profit in the foundry business.”