Intel's advanced packaging services are gaining market spotlight, which is why Team Blue is now moving towards outsourcing production to companies like Amkor.
Intel Plans to Produce EMIB Packaging In South Korea to Meet the Anticipated Demand Coming From AI Giants
With NVIDIA's 'co-design' laws in place, the demand for technologies like EMIB and CoWoS has increased exponentially, to the point where the supply chain cannot meet the capacity required by tech giants. We know that TSMC has been the dominant entity in the realm of packaging technologies, with solutions such as CoWoS; however, it appears that another player is expected to enter the segment, namely Intel Foundry, led by its EMIB and Foveros solutions. According to a report by ETNews, Intel has outsourced EMIB production to Amkor's facility in Incheon, South Korea, which is seen as an indication that demand for the firm's packaging services is high.
Intel has adequate facilities in the US to meet capacity, but considering the firm's massive demand, outsourcing production to companies like Amkor drastically speeds up the process, rather than investing in a fab buildout. EMIB is expected to be a dominant driver of Intel's external foundry revenue, at least before the debut of the 14A process, and one reason for this is that we have seen reports of several customers expressing interest in the technology. Some of the more mainstream names include MediaTek, Google, Qualcomm, and Tesla.
There are several reasons for customers to opt for Intel's packaging services, with one of the major ones being that TSMC's CoWoS capacity is constrained due to the influx of orders from AI giants. As a result, companies exploring ASICs and custom silicon look towards Intel Foundry as an alternative. More importantly, currently, companies like NVIDIA are required to ship the wafers produced in Arizona to Taiwan for packaging, which adds overhead in the form of higher costs and a significantly longer time to achieve the end product. With Intel stepping in, companies will have access to semiconductor and advanced packaging services right in the US.
It would be interesting to see how Intel Foundry evolves moving ahead, especially since reports indicate that there's massive optimism around the division's packaging products.
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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