Intel Eyes TSMC’s Chipmaking Crown As It Shares Big News For Advanced Technologies

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Even as its earnings guidance failed to meet analyst estimates, Intel's latest earnings call provided upgrades about its ongoing expansion towards a contract manufacturing foundry model. Ahead of yesterday's release, the chip giant announced that it had entered into a partnership with Taiwan's United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) to develop a new process node that will manufacture chips in the U.S. This will be part of Intel's Intel Foundry Services (IFS) business division, i.e., the firm's contract manufacturing business which aims to compete with the world's largest contract chip manufacturer, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).

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Intel's manufacturing woes that have led to its infamous product delays are well known in the chip industry, and another implication of the slowdown has been the growth in chips shipped by Taiwan's TSMC. TSMC makes the latest processors for Intel's smaller rival AMD, Apple, NVIDIA, Qualcomm and other players, allowing it to command a sizable chunk of the global semiconductor market.

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Intel's response to this is the IFS division, through which the firm will use its manufacturing technologies for customer orders. Its partnership with UMC is a part of IFS, and at its latest earnings call, Intel's chief executive officer Patrick Gelsinger shared more details about customer interest in IFS products as well as the rationale behind teaming up with Taiwan's biggest contract chip manufacturer after TSMC.

Customer interest in upcoming chip technologies is a keenly watched indicator when analyzing chip firms. It enables analysts to see whether the costs that a firm will book to develop new