Intel's new CEO announced plans today to Spend $20 Billion on two new Chip plants in Arizona to Challenge TSMC & Samsung
According to news out of Intel's event held this afternoon, the company will be greatly expanding its advanced chip manufacturing capacity as the new chief executive announced plans to spend as much as $20 billion to build two factories in Arizona and to open up its factories to outside customers.
The move by CEO Pat Gelsinger on Tuesday aims to restore Intel’s reputation after technological missteps. The strategy will directly challenge the two other companies in the world that can make the most advanced chips, Taiwan’s Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) and Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.
And it will also aim to tilt a technological balance of power back to the United States and Europe as government leaders on both continents have become concerned about the risks of a concentration of chipmaking in Taiwan given tensions with China.
News Highlights from the Intel Event
- Announcing manufacturing expansion plans; beginning with ~$20 billion investment to build two new fabs in Arizona
- Intel 7 nanometer process development progressing well with tape in of 7nm compute tile for “Meteor Lake” expected in the second quarter of 2021
- Announcing Intel Foundry Services with plans to become a major provider of foundry capacity in the U.S. and Europe to serve customers globally
- Announcing plans for new research collaboration with IBM
- Bringing the spirit of Intel Developer Forum event back this year with Intel Innovation event planned for October in San Francisco
You could read more of the details from today's event titled "Intel Unleashed" here. Below is the full keynote video.
The Reuters report added that "Intel's move is a direct challenge to TSMC and Samsung. The two have come to dominate semiconductor manufacturing business, moving its center of gravity from the United States, where much of the technology was once invented, to Asia, where more than two-thirds of advanced chips are now manufactured.
Gelsinger said Intel will aim to change that global balance by embracing the foundry business where it historically has been a minor player. Intel will offer chip customers the ability license out its own technological crown jewels - known as the x86 instruction set architecture - as well as offer to build chips based on technology from Arm Ltd or the emerging open source technology RISC-V, he said.
Gelsinger added: "We will be picking our next sites within the next year for U.S. and Europe,” he said. “We’re going to have committed capacity for foundry customers."
But even as Intel jumps into competition with TSMC and Samsung, it also plans to become a larger customer of theirs by turning to them to make subcomponents of its chips called "tiles" to make some chips more cost-effectively.
Intel plans to make the compute “tiles” for its “Meteor Lake” and “Granite Rapids” chips at its own factories for 2023 but will also offer PC and data center chips with compute tiles from TSMC, Gelsinger said, without giving more detail on the products with parts from TSMC.
Lastly, Gelsinger stated that he'd "pick the best process technologies wherever they exist. I'll leverage internal and external supply chains. I’ll have the best cost structure. That combination of supply, products and costs, we think is a killer combination."
One More Thing: Gelsinger's Hypocrisy
Report Update
During Intel's Q&A session found in the video above, Gelsinger touched on their new 'Foundry' strategy. Gelsinger first spoke about Qualcomm around the 48:38 mark stating: We're also going to go to some, like you saw in our announcements today, people like Qualcomm who might have been more competitive before and we're now going to say, hey, let's find ways to leverage our technologies in ways that weren't possible before and can we become your foundry partner."
Gelsinger also touched on Apple in an awkwardly worded way by saying: "We will also pursue customers like Apple and say, boy, you know are we possible to build and expand on your foundry capabilities as well." How hypocritical was that in context with Intel launching a series of attack ads just a week ago against Apple's M1 based MacBooks?
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