Cramer said competitors like Intel, Samsung, Qualcomm, ARM and Nvidia will fight the deal in Washington because it has the potential to crunch their gross margins by bringing up costs. He also pointed out that Washington has been relatively unfriendly to larger mergers this year.

Intel will adopt quantum well FETs (QWFETs) at the 10nm node (most likely), which will probably go into production in late 2015 or early 2016 (alternatively at 7nm in 2017 or 2018).

Cadian Capital Management and TIG Advisors are among Altera shareholders that have sent letters to the company's management, urging them to return to the negotiating table with Intel, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Some US and European chipmakers, such as Intel, could benefit from China's push to build up its semiconductor industry into a global power, said Jefferies in a new research report.

The volumes of the FPGA market are tiny by comparison to Intel's computer markets. Some have questioned a deal that would require spending as much as $13 billion to acquire just less than $2 billion in annual revenues.

Intel is in advanced talks to buy chip partner Altera, according to people familiar with the matter, a move that would represent the semiconductor giant's biggest-ever acquisition.

RBC Capital Markets chip analyst Doug Freedman this morning writes that chip maker Nvidia, which makes no parts itself, appears to have moved some of its orders for making its chips from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) to Samsung Electronics, and that this may presage giving some foundry business to Intel.

A judge has approved a US$415 million settlement in a Silicon Valley employee hiring case, calling the amount "substantial" to settle claims that Apple, Google, Adobe Systems and Intel conspired not to hire each other's workers.

Fifty years after Gordon Moore first described the trend that has driven technology, Intel says scaling is same as it ever was. But other chipmakers, who are struggling to realize the same benefits from good old-fashioned scaling, are increasingly looking for less-expensive alternatives.

Intel will describe what it claims are some of the world's smallest DRAM and I/O circuits here this week, a testament to its 14nm process technology. In a preview of at least five papers at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference, one Intel executive also continued to express optimism about the company's work on 10nm and 7nm nodes.

We note some investor speculation that Marvell Technology Group's mobile and wireless business is for sale, though we have no particular insight and Marvell does not comment.

Shares of chip equipment makers Applied Materials, KLA-Tencor, and Lam Research are all up in after-market trading, following a Q4 report from Intel in which it projected capital spending to be flat this year with last year's level.

While I do think building the entire stack on 14-nanometers will afford Intel a manufacturing lead, and perhaps performance lead, over competitors, the important thing here is that Intel has a complete stack that it can offer to its customers. This means Intel can be a one-stop shop for smartphone and tablet OEMs looking to build out a family of products, as Qualcomm is today.

Intel said it would invest up to US$1.6 billion over the next 15 years in its chip plant in Chengdu, China, as the company continues to expand its operations in the country.

Intel's continuing to push aggressively into the world of wearables. On Wednesday it signed a deal with Luxottica Group to develop smart eyewear in time for a product launch next year.

The next generation of Google Glass may have new guts, according to The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), which expects a deal between Google and Intel.

Samsung Electronics' semiconductor sales are expected to jump 15.6% on year in 2014, closing the gap with industry leader Intel, a global market tracker said Sunday.