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Apple Supplier TSMC May Operate Intel’s Chipmaking Facilities
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China could be an existential risk to TSMC if they don’t expand to other regions.
This would be soccialism, where the government owns the means of production. Communism is where the means are commonly owned by “everyone”.
Chinese and Soviet “communist” parties are/were actually socialist. Communism was supposed to be the utopia state after socialism, if you buy into Marxism.
Intel is worried about layoffs?? They should be worried about going out of business. Layoffs is a small price to pay to turn the company around and save the majority of jobs.
Of course China is a threat to Taiwan but TSMC can build their own fabs in the US. No need to buy Intel's defunct plants and then retool everything anyways. I think it's much deeper than just TSMC looking to diversify out of Taiwan quickly. The US government is probably putting pressure on TSMC to bail out Intel or it's tariff related.
And I genuinely doubt anyone is invading Taiwan during Trump's term. Literally no one knows what Trump's response will be, not even him.
It’s a lifeline, for sure. Just last year they were discussing if they should move towards simply being a manufacturer Ang getting out of the design business, but now they are desperate and looking to reinvent themselves.
I expect massive layoffs and the company might never be what it was ever again, but I hope I’m wrong.
I wonder if they’re going to help Intel catch up a bit and let them take over some of the larger node sizes they want to get out of so they can sell off older machines and make retooling cheaper for more advanced nodes they’re working on. They produce tons of chips for the auto, smartphones, cpus and graphics cards, and basically everything in between. Maybe they wanna get out of the older nodes. TSMC has been #1 for a while now because they don’t stop researching and let other catch up and apple buying cutting edge nodes lets them learn to improve yields and performance by essentially selling a process in beta and not creating huge piles of chips they can’t sell because it’s not part of an order. At least that’s my understanding. Either that or trump said he’d give them a waiver if they helped.
Be prepared to lose that money because if their processor development doesn’t improve, it doesn’t matter what their fab does
chances are it may cost even more - not just because of the tariffs, but also because the US dollar may well lose a lot of its value over the next four years
"we don't want china to have them" will likely soon turn into "we can't let China have them" in the minds of maga and suddenly the US government will prevent those people from leaving the country ever again 🤣
surely you mean a hot spot
I’m not American but you can see that this is part of a vital strategic rebalancing.
The situation currently would be like the USA going through the 20th century without oil fields or the ability to manufacture internal combustion engines for cars, just trucks.
The situation currently would be like the USA going through the 20th century without oil fields or the ability to manufacture internal combustion engines for cars, just trucks.
Competitor? Intel’s foundry half is basically a corpse in freefall, and TSMC is just going to wear them as a skin for that “American-made” designation and some hedging against their headquarters being flattened by the PLA. As the article points out, bringing in their proven equipment, processes, and practices is likely easier than trying to salvage Intel’s.
Unlikely, because Taiwan considers it a strategic national asset/industry and probably wouldn't allow it to be sold. Perhaps it could happen in a war scenario or something, but not in normal times.
And Intel is not being taken over by TSMC. They are proposing merging their chip fabrication division into a new subsidiary company which will be jointly owned with TSMC and other companies. It just means that the main Intel company will become a "fabless" chip designer, like AMD, Apple, Qualcomm, Nvidia, etc.
Yep. Worth noting, though, that most high-end Samsung devices use Qualcomm Snapdragon CPUs manufactured by TSMC.
tsmc will eventually buy out INTEL...they'll take over the factories and thats that...
Apple supplier TSMC has reached a preliminary agreement with Intel that will see TSMC operating Intel’s chipmaking facilities, reports The Information. TSMC will own a 20 percent stake in the new combined company, while Intel and other semiconductor companies will own the majority of the shares.
As part of the deal, TSMC may share some of its chip manufacturing methods with Intel, and train Intel employees to use them. Discussions are still underway, and the final details have not been established. The talks between Intel and TSMC were reportedly initiated by the Trump administration in an effort to stymy Intel’s decline and bring advanced chipmaking to the U.S.
Intel is one of TSMC’s major competitors, and the two have long been rivals. Apple previously used Intel chips in its Macs, but transitioned to its own Apple silicon chips manufactured by TSMC starting in 2020. No Apple devices use Intel processors, with Apple now relying entirely on its own technology.
TSMC focuses on chip manufacturing, not design, which is handled by TSMC customers like Apple and Nvidia. The focus solely on manufacturing has allowed TSMC to outpace Intel, and Intel’s foundary operations are less attractive to companies because Intel’s chips cost more than TSMC’s and its yields are lower.
Some Intel executives are said to be worried that the deal would result in layoffs, because Intel would need to eliminate engineers and may need to change or sell the equipment that it uses. Intel and TSMC have different manufacturing machines and materials, so if Intel is expected to adopt TSMC manufacturing processes, it could have to sell most of its existing equipment.
In 2024, Intel had an $18.8 billion loss because of its investments in chip manufacturing and a weakening PC market.
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Article Link: Apple Supplier TSMC May Operate Intel’s Chipmaking Facilities
