TSMC Still Continues to Explore Joint Venture for Intel Foundry Ownership

[AleksandarK]

TSMC is still considering a strategic joint venture to operate Intel's manufacturing capacity, according to four sources close to Reuters that are familiar with the discussions. The proposed arrangement would limit TSMC's ownership to less than 50% and potentially distribute stakes to major American chip designers, including AMD, Broadcom, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm. The initiative emerged following direct intervention from the Trump administration, which has prioritized revitalizing domestic semiconductor manufacturing while maintaining American control of critical technology infrastructure. Under the proposed framework, Intel would spin off its Intel Foundry division, with TSMC acquiring a minority stake and bringing in partner companies as co-investors.

Apple, TSMC's largest customer, is absent from these preliminary discussions, suggesting careful strategic positioning within the competitive ecosystem—however, significant technical and operational challenges are facing the potential joint venture. Intel's manufacturing and real estate assets are valued at approximately $108 billion, requiring substantial capital commitments from prospective partners. More fundamentally, the technological integration presents massive obstacles, as Intel and TSMC utilize fundamentally different manufacturing processes with distinct equipment configurations and material requirements. However, the complex negotiations remain in the early stages, with significant technical, financial, and regulatory hurdles to overcome before any formal agreement materializes. Intel is still not giving the clear green light to spin off rumors.



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[john_]

AMD owning even 0.5% of Intel fabs would be hilarious.

 

[RimbowFish]

it's gonna happen sooner or later, intel foundries are not competitives anymore due to the 14nm+++++++ era laziness

 

[Daven]

I’ve noticed a huge decrease in the number of SKUs across Intel product lines. I wonder if they are scaling back due to big change coming to the company.

 

[Assimilator]

This is a pipe dream. Intel is not going to sell off its foundries, and it is certainly not going to sell them to a competitor or competitors.

 

[Daven]

This is a pipe dream. Intel is not going to sell off its foundries, and it is certainly not going to sell them to a competitor or competitors.

I missed that physical law in my Physics class. What intrinsic property of the universe prevents this from happening?

 

[qcmadness]

This is a pipe dream. Intel is not going to sell off its foundries, and it is certainly not going to sell them to a competitor or competitors.

It could be a pipe dream 10 years ago.

But now it is a real possibility.

 

[mb194dc]

Just move TSMC brick by brick to the US including all the employees on green cards.

Easyier than the mess being suggested here.

 

[Athena]

Just move TSMC brick by brick to the US including all the employees on green cards.

Easyier than the mess being suggested here.

TSMC has a fab in AZ

The question here is, why would TSMC spend all that $ to upgrade Intel's fab that have been stuck with really old equipment, so they would need to be gutted and then reworked for the latest nodes

Maybe a couple of intel's fab can still make chips that don't need to be on the latest node, but, still, it's almost like GloFlo all over again, and how AMD got stuck with them because of a bad deal that AMD's CEO at the time made