Intel to Enter Third-Party Foundry Business, Set Up $20 Billion Fabs in Arizona

[btarunr]

Intel will formally enter the third-party semiconductor foundry business under the Intel Foundry Services (IFS) brand, announced CEO Pat Gelsinger, on Tuesday. This entity would operate under a business model not unlike that of TSMC, with its latest foundry technologies available to third-party customers, besides Intel. The company hopes to become a major foundry service provider to U.S. and E.U. customers, particularly enterprise and government contractors that need secure semiconductor manufacturing on U.S. soil.

To this effect, Gelsinger announced that the company will invest $20 billion in the state of Arizona, to set up two semiconductor foundries. Intel could have an edge over other foundry companies as its foundry service portfolio includes Intel technologies as IP blocks. IFS will be led by semiconductor industry veteran Dr. Randhir Thakur, who will report directly to Pat Gelsinger. The $20 billion investment in Arizona, according to Intel, will generate over 3,000 high-skilled jobs, over 3,000 construction jobs, and approximately 15,000 local long-term jobs.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[1d10t]

Spanish Intel 14nm acquisition will spread joy to the world.
On the serious side, I'm glad they finally split between engineering and manufacturing, which should give a leeway and "unrestricted" effort to their cause.

 

[Fatalfury]

Hope its $20 Billion fab is not a 14nm+... or even a 10nm...
must be a 3nm like the one TSMC is making in Texas.

 

[watzupken]

While it is good to have another fab to compete so as to keep TSMC and Samsung in check, I am not sure if big brands like Apple, Qualcomm, Nvidia, AMD, etc, will want to use Intel's fab. Unlike TSMC that is independent, i.e. not a chip maker themselves, Intel is a direct competitor (and a strong one) of chip making companies not just for PCs, but I believe also for automobiles. So I am not sure companies will be willing to share their chip design and also feed their competitor. Samsung also produce some chips, i.e. Exynos, but that's only a small business as compared to the their fab.

 

[hat]

Hmm, so Intel wants to go from not being able to produce anything on the cutting edge and outsourcing to TSMC, to building a giant new fab and making it available to others. Quite the lofty goal.

 

[Why_Me]

15,000 local long-term jobs.

 

[Caring1]

15,000 local long-term jobs.

That's a lot of housing they will have to build to accommodate all those specialists they'll need to work there.
Also of those 15,000 there might be a couple of janitor or canteen ladies positions for locals.

 

[Why_Me]

That's a lot of housing they will have to build to accommodate all those specialists they'll need to work there.
Also of those 15,000 there might be a couple of janitor or canteen ladies positions for locals.

?

 

[Why_Me]

Intel In Talks With Automotive Industry to Supply Specialized Chips

Could Intel solve the auto chip crisis? Maybe, but it'll take a while.

www.tomshardware.com

 

[medi01]

Hope its $20 Billion fab is not a 14nm+... or even a 10nm...
must be a 3nm like the one TSMC is making in Texas.

Intel is fine with you calling their 14nm+ process "8nm", their 10nm process "7nm" and their "7nm" process 1nm, if you so wish.

And if you wonder, what I'm talking about, comparison of actual transistors used in L1 cache, TSMC 7nm vs 14nm Intel:
Intel: 24x24nm
TSMC: 22x22nm

As if, ya know, TSMC naming was misleading, mostly marketing and as if Intel, who was not into Fab business, didn't participate in naming bazinga.

Hmm, so Intel wants to go from not being able to produce anything on the cutting edge and outsourcing to TSMC, to building a giant new fab and making it available to others. Quite the lofty goal.

You are reading it wrong.
Fabs are damn expensive.
Intel has to pay for all that investment all by itself at the moment.
Getting into fab business would drastically reduce the burden.

As there is less than a handful of fabs, Intel not dropping its fabs, but adding more options to the world, is great news.

 

[Fluffmeister]

In the current climate of chip shortages this does make sense.

Besides, we all know real men have fabs.

 

[64K]

Intel can afford it. Last year they had 78 billion dollars in revenue and 21 billion dollars in profit.

 

[hat]

You are reading it wrong.
Fabs are damn expensive.
Intel has to pay for all that investment all by itself at the moment.
Getting into fab business would drastically reduce the burden.

As there is less than a handful of fabs, Intel not dropping its fabs, but adding more options to the world, is great news.

Sure, I just find it ironic that they don't have anything cutting edge and now they want to build a fab for others to use.

 

[Why_Me]

As Biden meets CEOs to tackle chip shortage, Intel offers hope

During a White House meeting Biden said he has bipartisan support for legislation to fund the semiconductor industry.

www.aljazeera.com