Intel Foundry has reportedly approached Samsung for a "foundry alliance" in an attempt to form a collaborative strategy to counter TSMC's growing influence in the industry.
Intel & Samsung Are Determined To Combat TSMC's Semiconductor Dominance Through An Extensive Collaboration
Well, Team Blue's foundry business isn't doing well at all, and the firm has now set its sights on the industry to look for a potential "comeback," whether it involves collaborating with competitors like Samsung.
In a new report by the Korean media outlet MK, it is now disclosed that Intel's CEO Pat Gelsinger has advised one of the company's executives to arrange a meeting with Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-Yong in an attempt to develop a "comprehensive collaboration," involving the respective foundry divisions.
The IFS and Samsung Foundry are indeed the underdogs of the semiconductor industry, making efforts to dethrone the Taiwan giant TSMC from the very top, but they haven't been very successful in achieving this. While the IFS has a competitive product portfolio to offer, TSMC has taken away all the industry spotlight, leaving little room for business, and for Samsung Foundry, well, they are facing massive yield rate issues despite being superior in "node sizes," which has yet again, positioned the Korean giant at a disadvantage.
While the report doesn't specifically mention what sort of collaboration we are looking at, it does assume that Samsung-Intel plans to collaborate on R&D efforts, along with the sharing of production facilities and process technology, which will surely be an interesting move. Samsung, having the brains, and Intel, having the right equipment, will indeed prove to be a progressive collaboration, causing a shift in industry dynamics if execution works out as expected.
Intel has finally realized that moving alone in the industry won't do them well, and the recent "x86 alliance" with AMD is another example of how Team Blue is now expanding its market prospects. IFS and Samsung Foundry collaborating is surely in the books, and TSMC might need to stay cautious, given that the level of competition will rise massively if the alliance becomes official.
About the author: Muhammad Zuhair is a hardware and technology reporter for Wccftech, specializing in the semiconductor industry and the complex interplay between technology, manufacturing, and geopolitics. His coverage focuses on the corporate strategies and technological roadmaps of industry giants like TSMC, NVIDIA, Samsung, and Intel. Zuhair's expertise lies in deconstructing complex topics such as fabrication nodes (e.g., 2nm process), the economic impact of policies like the CHIPS Act, and the strategic development of AI infrastructure from NVIDIA, AMD and Intel.
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