All Guns Firing At Intel

Intel has come out with all guns firing. After horrible Q3 figures it has further re-positioned its foundry unit as an independent operation which will make its US rivals like AMD, Nvidia and Qualcomm less wary about using it.

The US Department of Commerce has been encouraging Nvidia and AMD to get aboard Intel Foundry and is doubtless encouraging more US fabless companies to do the same. Half the world’s top ten fabless companies are US – and they all need fab – and US companies have about half the world semiconductor market while some 70% of TSMC’s revenues and profits come from US companies.

So, with the US government urging US companies to use Intel Foundry and the US hyperscalers wanting foundry for their proprietary SOCs, combined with the heady prospect of Intel having the world’s best foundry process next year, there’s everything to play for.

18A remains, of course, an enigma inside a mystery wrapped up in a riddle, it is clearly a fiendishly difficult nut to crack. Samsung tried to get a jump on the industry by coming out early with GAA and backside power delivery but seems to be floundering, while wise old TSMC, the incumbent process supremo, held its fire and is introducing those features at a later process node. 

This has given Intel the chance to get ahead in process and Gelsinger has jumped at it. If he can get 18A yielding in volume production the chip industry will be his oyster.