If I was Intel, I'd be frothing to take over BRN. And pay whatever the shareholders request for it. Then tuck the tech under thr loihi name. Just makes sense.
As a shareholder, I wouldn't want BrainChip to be acquired by another company, including Intel. I'm not sure how it works for other foreign markets, but here in the U.S., there are a couple of options.
Provided the shareholders voted to approve it and regulators allowed the deal to go through, shareholders could have their stocks replaced with cash from a buyout, and that's it. Optionally, they could have their shares of stock exchanged for shares in the new company, and most likely not a one-to-one ratio.
Intel's stock is currently 38.01 USD (59.55 AUD), yes, tempting, but NVIDIA's is sitting at 455.72 USD (713.96 AUD). I strongly suspect any buyout would not be close to what BrainChip's value would be worth ten years from now.
Given the patents, technology, and lead time, BrainChip has a good chance of doing very well on its own, and I believe it could potentially be worth more than Intel's stock currently sits. Let's also consider the number of outstanding shares BrainChip has, ~1.78 billion. In 2020, NVIDIA attempted (unsuccessfully) to acquire Arm for USD 40 billion. I don't think that BrainChip is well-known enough to command that type of offer, but if all of BrainChip's shares were to cash out at USD 10 billion, that would be roughly 8.80 AUD a share.
Disclaimer: I am not in the financial business. I may be oversimplifying my example. From what I provided, I think BrainChip has the potential to be much more than 8.80 AUD per share ten years from now. Let's also not discount the tax headache this would bring from any shares not held in a retirement account that isn't subject to income taxes.
I imagine that some people might be tempted to cash out at a significant amount above their current investment, and some may have personal situations in which having those funds would be needed. 8.80 certainly looks a lot better than 0.30 right now.
This is not financial advice, and these views are my personal opinion. I would not want to see BrainChip sell to another company.