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The Exiled · 26.02.2025., 19:47

Nažalost sve je moguće, kad je Intel u pitanju, jer samo par dana nakon te 18A vijesti, stigla je totalna suporotnost.

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Intel's 18A yields are now reported to be around 20%- 30%, as the company is now claimed to face a massive roadblock to switching to mass production.

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Intel delays $28 billion Ohio chip factories to 2030

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Intel's promised $28 billion chip fabrication plants in Ohio are facing further delays, with the first factory in New Albany expected to not be completed until 2030, local media outlet The Columbus Dispatch reported on Friday. The first factory will begin operations sometime shortly thereafter in either 2030 or 2031, the report said, citing the chipmaker. Shares of the company, which originally scheduled to begin chipmaking in Ohio factories in 2025, were up more than 5%.

Intel has been cutting capital expenses after its expensive bid to become a contract chip manufacturer for other companies, in a move to restore its lost glory, strained its balance sheet. The changes were made so Intel can align its factory operation with market demand and better "manage capital responsibly", the report cited Naga Chandrasekaran, general manager of Intel Foundry Manufacturing, as saying in a message to workers.

The company's second Ohio factory will not be completed until at least 2031 and will begin running in 2032, according to the report. Intel did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Last year, the company laid off 15% of its workforce, suspended dividend and initiated an extensive cost-savings plan involving massive cuts to its capital expenditure in the coming years. Its finance chief David Zinsner told Reuters last month that the company's goal was to ensure operating expenses were at roughly $17.5 billion for 2025.

Izvor: Reuters i TechPowerUp

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Former Intel directors strongly oppose TSMC takeover, call for Intel fabs spinoff

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Intel's stock has surged over 20% recently as investors anticipate a possible company split amidst a rumor suggesting that the Trump administration might push Intel and TSMC to form a joint venture that would take over Intel's manufacturing capacity. Four former directors of Intel wrote a column in the Fortune magazine explaining that this is a terrible idea and proposed spinning off Intel manufacturing to a separate company that would be owned by American investors instead.

Former Intel directors David B. Yoffie (a professor at Harvard Business School, has an extensive background in high-tech business strategy), Reed Hundt (a former chairman of the FCC), Charlene Barshefsky (a lawyer and a former U.S. Trade Representative), and James Plummer (a professor of electrical engineering and former dean of the School of Engineering at Stanford University, has a rich semiconductor background and holds 20 appropriate patents), wrote a column for Fortune magazine condemning the idea of handling Intel manufacturing capacity to TSMC and calling to spin it off and sell to a group of Western investors.

TSMC-controlled semiconductor industry poses significant risks. Concentrating leading-edge semiconductor production in the U.S. under a foreign entity could weaken American technology firms by creating a near-monopoly, the former directors believe. While companies like Apple, AMD, and Nvidia rely on TSMC today, they still benefit from competitive pressure on the market that is created by Samsung Foundry and will be supported by Intel Foundry if the latter is a success. Intel presents little competition for TSMC as it has only two production nodes to offer. However, if Intel disappears completely, American firms could face reduced bargaining power, the former directors suggest. The former Intel directors think that a more strategic approach would be for Intel to separate its manufacturing division from its design business. In fact, they go as far as saying that the U.S. government should require the company to spin off its production operations and sell them to a Western private investor group.

To make this viable, Washington should provide $10 billion in capital as non-voting equity, similar to the 2008 bank bailouts, ensuring taxpayers benefit if the venture succeeds. Additionally, major U.S. semiconductor firms, including Intel's design division, must commit to placing orders to guarantee profitability. The former members of the Intel board of directors believe these measures would make the business attractive to investors while preserving American semiconductor production capabilities.

Even if TSMC was compelled to take control of Intel's capacity, its most advanced research would remain in Taiwan, and over time, it might close Intel's factories and lay off most of its workforce.

Izvor: Tom's Hardware

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'Fire the Intel board and rehire Pat Gelsinger,' argues former Intel CEO Craig Barrett

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Former Intel CEO Craig Barrett said that Intel should not divide its business into two pieces, especially as it just had a technological breakthrough that would allow it to catch up with TSMC’s N2 process node. Barrett said this in his opinion piece on Fortune, in response to the suggestion of a few former Intel directors that championed dividing the chip giant instead of letting TSMC take it over.

Barrett said that the reason why Intel’s foundry business failed in the past years is because it lacked the technology to compete against the Taiwanese chipmaker, not because customers won’t trust Intel since it also makes and sells chips. But now that it’s seeing success with its 18A process technology, he argues that splitting off the foundry will only serve as a distraction and introduce complications. Instead, Intel should focus all its efforts on the 18A node, ensuring that it delivers “good customer service, fair pricing, guaranteed capacity, and a clear separation of chip designers from their foundry customers” alongside this advanced technology.

Aside from speaking up against the notion of splitting up Intel, the former CEO also criticized Intel’s former and current board. He said that the Intel board “bears ultimate responsibility for what has happened to Intel over the last decade” while saying that the next CEO to take the company’s reins should build on Pat Gelsinger’s accomplishments. The former CEO also took a swipe at the four former Intel board members. Barrett said that although they mean well, they were academics and former government bureaucrats who weren’t familiar with the complex workings of running a semiconductor business.

Pat Gelsinger, who was ousted as CEO of the company just last December, was one of the key people who led Intel to achieve its recent technological breakthroughs that might put it on par with TSMC. Developing and setting up production for new chip technologies takes years, something that Gelsinger pushed under his watch. In the end, it seems that Craig Barrett thinks that forcing Pat Gelsinger to retire was the wrong move for intel. He says, “In my opinion, a far better move might be to fire the Intel board and rehire Pat Gelsinger to finish the job he has aptly handled over the past few years.”

Izvor: Tom's Hardware

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nVidia and Broadcom testing chips on Intel manufacturing process

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Chip designers nVidia and Broadcom are running manufacturing tests with Intel, demonstrating early confidence in the struggling company's advanced production techniques. The two tests, which have not been reported previously, indicate the companies are moving closer to determining whether they will commit hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of manufacturing contracts to Intel. The decision to do so could generate a revenue windfall and endorsement for Intel's contract manufacturing business that has been beset by delays and has not yet announced a prominent chip designer customer.

Advanced Micro Devices is also evaluating whether Intel's 18A manufacturing process is suitable for its needs but it was unclear if it had sent test chips through the factory. AMD declined to comment. The tests by nVidia and Broadcom are using Intel's 18A process, a series of technologies and techniques developed over years that is capable of making advanced artificial intelligence processors and other complex chips. The 18A process competes with similar technology from Taiwan's TSMC, which dominates the global chip market. These tests are not being conducted on complete chip designs but are instead aimed at determining the behavior and capabilities of Intel's 18A process. Chip designers sometimes purchase wafers to test specific components of a chip to work out any kinks before committing to producing a full design at high volume.

However, manufacturing tests are no assurance that Intel will eventually win new business. Last year, Reuters reported that a batch of Broadcom tests disappointed its executives and engineers. At the time, Broadcom said it was continuing to review Intel's foundry. The early endorsement is happening against the backdrop of potential further delays in Intel's ability to deliver chips for some contract manufacturing customers that rely on third-party intellectual property. The success of Intel's contract manufacturing business, or foundry, was the centerpiece of former CEO Pat Gelsinger's plan to revive the once iconic American technology company. But the board fired Gelsinger in December.

Intel's struggling business has attracted the attention of U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, which is keen on restoring American manufacturing prowess and battling China. Intel is considered the only hope for the U.S. to manufacture the most advanced semiconductors within its borders. Earlier this year, administration officials met with C.C. Wei, CEO of Taiwan's TSMC in New York about taking a majority stake in a joint venture in Intel's factory unit. The talks included the possibility of other chip designers purchasing equity stakes in the new venture.

Izvor: Reuters

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