Qualcomm could sell parts of Intel to other buyers to get any deal done, the newspaper added.
Intel mostly sells chips for PCs and data center servers, although Nvidia's GPUs have made serious inroads into this lucrative data center business.
An "odd" fitSemianalysis chief analyst Dylan Patel said Qualcomm and Intel would be an "odd" fit.
"Furthermore, Qualcomm has no ability to turn around the data center business, which is the most important one," he continued.
The company's revenue has declined in recent years while rivals like Nvidia, TSMC, and Broadcom are riding the artificial intelligence wave to new heights.
Persons:
—, Apple iPhones, Dylan Patel, Patel, Pat Gelsinger, Gelsinger
Organizations:
Service, Qualcomm, Intel, Wall Street, Business, Nvidia, Apple, Intel's Foundry, TSMC, Broadcom, Amazon Web Services, Gaudi, AMD, UXL, Google