Despite being rivals, TSMC seems determined to acquire a stake in Intel's foundry business and has discussed its "ambitious" plans with mainstream tech companies.
TSMC Signing A Deal With Intel Foundry Might Be One Of The Ways The Company Could Escape "Trump Tariffs"
With the Trump administration taking office, we have seen them putting a huge focus on bringing semiconductor glory back to the US, and a part of that is getting Intel back on its feet. In the past weeks, we have seen talks about a potential Intel-TSMC deal, where both companies will collaborate to accelerate US chip production, and now, the Taiwan giant apparently appears ready to make a move, as reported by Reuters. TSMC has discussed acquiring a stake in Intel Foundry with its partners like NVIDIA, AMD and Broadcom, with it being responsible for handling fabrication facilities.it
It is claimed that TSMC wouldn't own more than 50% of Intel's operations, given that the firm wants to ensure that "exclusivity" remains with Intel and the Trump administration isn't in favor of completely outsourcing Team Blue to a foreign entity. This joint venture deal by the Taiwan giant was announced before TSMC's announcement to invest $100 billion in the US, with plans to open five new facilities in Arizona and an R&D center as well.
The interest of TSMC in this deal is surely questionable, given that the Taiwan giant's method of operations is completely different from that of the IFS, and when you consider the operational costs of the IFS, the deal simply makes it difficult for TSMC to sustain. However, the only way the partnership will help TSMC is to get rid of the "Trump tariff" threat, given that it could be up to 100%, which means TSMC's business will be devastated, which means that the firm is indirectly being forced into partnership with Team Blue.
For Intel, well, they do need a desperate comeback, and despite all the optimism around Intel Foundry, we haven't seen a "winner product" from them. This could potentially change with the debut of 18A, but yet again, we can't conclude on this until we see the process in action. Since TSMC has started discussions with its partners, we can see a joint venture deal being signed off soon.
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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