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Intel Eager to Avoid Clashes With Apple As It Looks to Secure TSMC's 3nm Chip Supply

JustSomebody12 said:
The biggest bottleneck in chip research & production is production, NOT research.

Intel would earn a good chunk of money by selling its foundries (but not a fantastic one, since they are behind the competition), but keeping them and trying to upgrade would be much wiser.
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Not arguing against that. However, TSMC is not stupid. They are not going to put their eggs in a competitor's basket.
 
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Intel is a memory from the past. Somewhat sad to see them begging on their knees, but only they are responsible for their lack of innovation. I don't feel any pain for them.
 
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Glideslope said:
They aren't even going to acknowledge the Basket.
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Well, if you're TSMC why would you give up any sort of hard-won advantage to a competitor with 1/3 your market cap?

Especially when that competitor is also a competitor/enemy of 3 of your biggest customers (Apple, AMD and Nvidia).

Crazy talk.


Intel has done a lot of sitting on ass since Sandy Bridge. They're reaping what they have sown.
 
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k2k koos said:
I would not be surprised, if Intel at some point will try a take over bid in order to secure the technology and production capacity, and we'll end up with Intel inside again... I hope not, but just the way things seem to go in the industry nowadays...
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At this point I'm thinking it's more likely that Apple try to buy them. I would actually be surprised if the question hasn't at least been asked at least once already.

TSE said:
Great! I hope AMD, Intel, and nVidia blow Apple Silicone out of the water.

It has no effect on my equipment as I decided I would never go back to Windows, and it will only push Apple to work even harder with their chips.
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Precisely this! Bring on the competition Intel, we're all better for it! Please do it the right way this time, with focus on tech, not marketing!
 
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throAU said:
But I thought Intel were a process leading foundry now with intel 7 and the angstrom stuff

/s


also intel, as a company...

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Good point.

‘Hey everyone, we’ll make your chips. Someone else will be making ours, but that doesn’t mean we’re a bad foundry, they’re just a better one. Wait, no we’re the best just not at being a foundry. No, WAIT!”
 
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If I was Intel, I wouldn't worry one bit about Apple !

Apple is about to get slammed, BIG time !

Dec 9th is now less than one week away !

And even if Apple gets a Stay from the 9th Circuit, it only pushes the deadline out by one month, to Jan 9th.

The "Renaissance of App Discovery' starts on Dec 9th, OR Jan 9th if Apple gets a Stay.

Think California Gold Rush, but NOT the 1849 version !

"App Discovery" of NON-Game Apps is about to hit an ALL-time high !

Intel, & others, would be wise, to develop Partnerships with some of them !

Dec 8th could be considered "peak Apple" ... time will tell.
 
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throAU said:
Not sure intel have the money.

TSMC's market cap is approximately 3x intel at the moment.
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I thought that buying a company with its own money was standard, not-at-all-fraudulent-or-irresponsible operating practice these days?

I mean, if I'm worth $200bn and buy something worth $600bn then I'll be worth $800bn so I'm easily good for a $600bn loan, right?

NB: :) - or, at least, I really, really hope so....
 
rukia said:
Apple isn't just another customer like AMD but a critical partner. Apple consumes over 25% of all TSMC's output and virtually all of their leading edge process node from risk starts to early ramp. The latter point is critical as TSMC wouldn't be where they are today without Apple and neither would the rest of the fabless semiconductor industry. Moving a leading edge process node into volume production is very difficult and extremely expensive. This is why companies like AMD are not the first mover on this and prefer to be a node behind. You need a company that can move a very large number of units with high margin, is very well capitalized, and has deep experience and skills to leverage the most advanced nodes. There isn't another company on the planet that can move more units, with sufficient margin, than Apple and meets the other requirements above. Without Apple TSMC's leading edge process nodes would roll out a lot slower than they have in the past. Apple has been critical in making TSMC what it is today which has the trickle down effect of allowing companies like AMD to benefit from the rapid development of advanced nodes. TSMC would never do anything to damage this close relationship as it would be detrimental to their own health.
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You're exaggerating.
AMD is also a very important client with a huge potential, bigger than Apple's I would say. Let's not forget that AMD sells data center chips which are higher margin that apple's chips and in very very high demand.
The reason why apple often introduces new nodes from TSMC is because smartphone SOCs are small and ideal for such situations. TSMC needs more time to roll out high performance optimized variants of their nodes, that hasn't changed.

Also, this close partnership TSMC has with apple is starting to affect them as AMD is looking to partner with Samsung for their 3nm node. Also Samsung is looking to aquire some of TSMCs clients. In the long run I don't doubt that Intel and Samsung will eventually match TSMCs nodes in performance.
 
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koil said:
At this point I'm thinking it's more likely that Apple try to buy them. I would actually be surprised if the question hasn't at least been asked at least once already.
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That's fantasy. Apple would not be able to buy Intel no matter how much they try, not to mention such an acquisition would never get approved anyway.
For example Nvidia's acquisition of ARM is practically blocked.
 
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One of the main reasons I'm so glad I updated my apple setup now (iPhone 13 and Mbpro 16") is that even if this crysis will stay as it is, or get even vorse, for 2022/2023 I will still have all I need to work.

Sure, gaming is my favourite hobby and it sucks not being able to assemble a new PC (mine is top spec 2015) at attainable prices...
 
Intel should be hiring and working like crazy to be able to produce these chips themselves. Having every major tech company in the world place all their eggs in the TSMC basket is crazy.
 
throAU said:
But I thought Intel were a process leading foundry now with intel 7 and the angstrom stuff

/s


also intel, as a company...

View attachment 1922369
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You know what funny?
Intel is US's new darling as the biggest American chip manufacturer and a crucial player in the new chip race. Remember "too big to fail"? well Intel is way too important to fail. I predicted that in the upcoming years they will get huge amounts of money from the US government(and EU as well to build fabs in Europe) in order to improve their chip manufacturing business and stay competitive. I mean Samsung just got 4 billion to build a fab in Texas.
 
MacRumors said:
Taiwan
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How dare you mention that Taiwan exists? Go apologize to China right this moment!!!

As for the article itself, it simply proves what the whole ASMac switch was about--Intel can't keep up with the iThingies' processor.
 
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