Texas Instruments (TI), makers of the OMAP chipsets used in smartphones and tablets, have recently said that after releasing the 5th generation of OMAP, they will be shifting their focus from mobile to making chips for car makers and other such markets. Now, Israeli financial newspaper Calcalist is reporting that Amazon may be looking to buy TI’s mobile chip business.

Amazon already extensively uses TI’s processors in their Kindle Fire tablets, and could be looking to enter the smartphone world with the might of the TI chipset business behind them, providing them with their own processors for their devices, just like Samsung and Apple currently employ. However, Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi wondered whether Amazon wants to “become that intimately involved with hardware”, and it does seem doubtful that Amazon would really want to move into the hardware business with such a major move.

Neither Amazon or TI officials have responded yet, so it remains to be seen if there is some truth to this rumor. We’ll be sure to update you with further developments on the matter, so stay tuned.