Intel Vows to Surpass TSMC as the World’s Leading Semiconductor Company

Tsing

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Intel has confirmed its intention to eclipse TSMC as the world’s leading semiconductor company. The lofty goal was confirmed by newly cemented CEO Pat Gelsinger, who published a note to employees today explaining the fast-paced nature of today’s technology and how Intel was the only company in the world that was properly equipped to handle the challenges related to modern digital “superpowers” such as cloud, 5G, and artificial intelligence.



“Intel is the only semiconductor company that has the depth and breadth of intelligent silicon, platform, software, architecture, design, manufacturing and scale that our customers need to capitalize on these opportunities and fuel their next-generation innovations,” Gelsinger boasted in his note to the team.



“I am confident that we can be the...
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I wish 'em luck. Got my doubts for sure but it would be nice. Most of the community is quick to rally that we need more competition for CPUs and GPUs, and for good reason, but at the end of the day nearly every electronics manufacturer has to source from the same couple of companies for their top-end processors and look where that's got us.
 
IF Intel wants to be the #1 semiconductor company wouldn't it mean it would have to open its foundries to 3rd parties?
 
Well, Intel's spent more than a decade at the top of the semi-conductor food chain for having the most advanced foundries and processes. It's only in the last few years that Intel has back slid from this position. Of course, if we are talking about volume, then yes. Intel would most likely have to open their doors to third parties. Frankly, it would be a good time to do so as there are a lot of chips that need to be produced for a variety of purposes on older nodes.
 
Dan_D said:
Well, Intel's spent more than a decade at the top of the semi-conductor food chain for having the most advanced foundries and processes. It's only in the last few years that Intel has back slid from this position. Of course, if we are talking about volume, then yes. Intel would most likely have to open their doors to third parties. Frankly, it would be a good time to do so as there are a lot of chips that need to be produced for a variety of purposes on older nodes.
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I don't know if intel has enough capacity to open to 3rd parties yet
 
Stoly said:
I don't know if intel has enough capacity to open to 3rd parties yet
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It's hard to say. But, if it does, anything it could open up for say the automotive industry could be lucrative.
 
Dan_D said:
It's hard to say. But, if it does, anything it could open up for say the automotive industry could be lucrative.
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Among many, many other things.

Of course Intel would have to open up their business processes to be suited for such a venture too. I recall their last attempt not going too terribly well.

Stoly said:
I don't know if intel has enough capacity to open to 3rd parties yet
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One thing that comes to mind would be for Intel to build more capacity rather than upgrading fabs so aggressively. Perhaps that hasn't been an option in the past, perhaps due to perceived (and probably realized) demand trends, or maybe because it just didn't make business sense for some other reason.

But given the position that the whole industry finds itself in today, making more fabs, perhaps smaller ones with an eye toward potential future expansion, might make more sense.

Leave fabs at old processes longer, open them up to other customers, don't upgrade until business starts to dry up and so on.
 
Intel has been very insistent that they maintain their 60% margins, often shedding businesses that “only” have 30-40% margins. Given this, I have a hard time believing that they will keep around older nodes or open the fabs to 3rd parties as that would be lower margin. Think about the fact they killed off their attempts at mobile processors because that was only 25% margins - they could have been a dominant player in every cell phone one there... but passed.
 
Some companies. Need to come in and lease fab use from ti. In dfw they have fabs all over the place.
 
Grimlakin said:
Some companies. Need to come in and lease fab use from ti. In dfw they have fabs all over the place.
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They just have one in Dallas as far as I know. Granted, it's a big one. The other one in the DFW area is actually in Sherman Texas. Ti has other offices in the area, but only the one fab.
 
I would have swore there is another fab in Plano . They built it like 15 years ago.
 
Grimlakin said:
I would have swore there is another fab in Plano . They built it like 15 years ago.
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There is a facility out there, but I don't believe its a fab. I also think you are thinking of a Raytheon facility, which isn't part of TI anymore.
 
LazyGamer said:
Among many, many other things.

Of course Intel would have to open up their business processes to be suited for such a venture too. I recall their last attempt not going too terribly well.


One thing that comes to mind would be for Intel to build more capacity rather than upgrading fabs so aggressively. Perhaps that hasn't been an option in the past, perhaps due to perceived (and probably realized) demand trends, or maybe because it just didn't make business sense for some other reason.

But given the position that the whole industry finds itself in today, making more fabs, perhaps smaller ones with an eye toward potential future expansion, might make more sense.

Leave fabs at old processes longer, open them up to other customers, don't upgrade until business starts to dry up and so on.
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While I agree for the most part, Samsung and TSMC are what they are because of their continued advanced processes.
 
Dan_D said:
There is a facility out there, but I don't believe its a fab. I also think you are thinking of a Raytheon facility, which isn't part of TI anymore.
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Or UT Dallas, which apparently was donated by TI, and is next to Raytheon and what's left of a Fry's, and one of the most poorly planned entrance / exit points on the tollway...
 
Stoly said:
While I agree for the most part, Samsung and TSMC are what they are because of their continued advanced processes.
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Totally agreed, but both were behind, like way behind, until Intel hit their 14nm wall. And they don't produce products that are so fast that they obsolete Intel parts made on Intel's 'ancient' 14nm process even today.

I don't want to discount the advancements they made, I just prefer to keep this stuff in perspective. Perhaps only to keep myself being surprised.
 
Dan_D said:
There is a facility out there, but I don't believe its a fab. I also think you are thinking of a Raytheon facility, which isn't part of TI anymore.
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I'm talking off of renner in plano TX.
 
LazyGamer said:
Totally agreed, but both were behind, like way behind, until Intel hit their 14nm wall. And they don't produce products that are so fast that they obsolete Intel parts made on Intel's 'ancient' 14nm process even today.

I don't want to discount the advancements they made, I just prefer to keep this stuff in perspective. Perhaps only to keep myself being surprised.
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I think I heard of something called, what's the name? oh yes, Ryzen :p :p

Joke aside, both TSMC and samsung are going full force on 5nm and are getting 3nm soon, while Intel can't even get 10nm working. Yeah, I know they are not comparable, but still.
 
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