The idea of creating a joint venture TSMC and Intel, which would control at least one American factory of the latter, arose at the level of rumors a couple of days ago, but with Bloomberg, it gained a more clear outline. As it turns out, such an initiative comes from the top political leadership of the United States.
Image Source: Intel
The fate of the American Intel enterprises for the production of chips, which the corporation itself is trying to make organizationally more independent for more than a year in a row, representatives of the Trump team discussed at meetings with the leadership of TSMC, and this Taiwanese contract manufacturer of chips was the idea with proper enthusiasm, according to Bloomberg. Intel position on this issue is not entirely clear.
Negotiations are at an early stage, as Bloomberg notes, and so far it is too early to discuss the structure of the joint venture TSMC and Intel. The idea is so far to entrust the largest contract manufacturer of chips in the person of TSMC Operational management of all Intel enterprises in the United States. In addition to taking into account national interests, such a partnership will allow you to get Intel out of a difficult financial situation in which the processor giant was.
Some American chips developers can also become shareholders of the new joint venture, financial support to the project may also be provided at the expense of the American budget. Moreover, even under the former political leadership of the United States, Intel allocated subsidies on the so -called “chip law” – at the amount of $ 7.9 billion, and $ 2.2 billion out of this amount already managed to receive by January of this year. The participation of American companies is necessary to compensate for the fact that TSMC is formally a foreign manufacturer. The latter circumstance, as some sources expect, may be an obstacle to the implementation of the initiative. From a political point of view, transferring control over the enterprises of the largest manufacturer of chips in the United States a foreign company will not be so easy. This is recognized in the White House.
Intel’s own attempts have not yet given significant results. There are not so many third -party customers for ordering chips yet, their own brand products are losing market positions, in early December, against the backdrop of the crisis, Patrick Gelsinger, General Director Patrick Gelsinger). The discussion of Intel salvation plans began even under Bayn, but then Globalfoundries was mentioned as a strategic partner, which, although it is considered an American company, is actually funded by Arab investors. However, Globalfoundries would seem to have no money for Support for Support, so the authors of the idea quickly cooled to her.
Under Bayden, as noted, the ideas of TSMC technologies for the use of Intel using a license were also expressed, but the Taiwanese manufacturer did not suit a competitor. In addition, officials from the Biden government were not ready to take an active part in the negotiations.
Under Trump, the American side gained more determination. It is enough to recall that it was he who, within his first presidential term, began to agitate TSMC to build enterprises in the United States. This week, the meeting of the Board of Directors TSMC was held for the first time in the USA, and this event could just be used to contact American officials.
The TSMC attitude to the idea of more dense cooperation with Intel gradually changed. If in October the General Director of the first of the company Si-si (C.C. Wei) claimed that it has no intention of acquiring Intel enterprises, then in January he simply scattered in compliments to Intel and called it an important client for TSMC.