BEIJING/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Intel Corp said it will pay as much as $1.5 billion (920 million pounds) for a 20 percent stake in two mobile chipmakers with ties to the Chinese government, in the hopes of catching up in a smartphone chip industry dominated by rival Qualcomm Inc. Intel will acquire the stake in Spreadtrum Communications and RDA Microelectronics through a deal with Tsinghua Unigroup, a government-affiliated private equity firm which owns the two mobile chipmakers.