Intel appointed new CEO, Pat Gelsinger, and he’s not wasting any time to make some big changes. Gelsinger presented his plans to outsource more and more of Intel’s chip production to third-party “foundries”, a $20 billion investment into two new fabs in Arizona and a new branch of the company called Intel Foundry Services, which will see Intel’s foundries produce chips for other companies.
These announcements are part of a new “IDM 2.0” strategy for Intel’s design and manufacturing, which is divided in three parts. First, there’s Intel’s in-house manufacturing, which can still function a key a part of Intel’s design and production of chips. Second, is involvement of external foundries, including TSMC, Samsung, and Global Foundries, for production of “products at the core of Intel’s computing offerings” for both consumer and enterprise chips, starting in 2023.
And third, there’s the newly announced Intel Foundry Services, which can see Intel open its gates to handle manufacturing of chips for other commercial customers, led by Rhandir Thakur. Intel Foundry Services is a total separate business unit and it will develop x86, Arm, and RISC-V core chips for external clients using Intel’s manufacturing technology. For official and government purpose work, the foundries will be located in United Stated and Europe, a plus point in comparison to the other competitors.
The expansion of Intel’s manufacturing efforts — which include a $20 billion investment into new fabs in Arizona that will expand Intel’s existing Ocotillo campus come at a critical time: the world is currently facing semiconductor shortage meaning that the demand for chips is at an all-time high. Adding Intel’s foundries could help to open new opportunity for companies to source the chips that are essential for everything from new video game consoles to new pickup trucks. Gelsinger teased that more foundries are in the works, promising additional announcement of expansions in the US, Europe, and others part later this year.
Intel also announced a new R&D collaboration with IBM “focused on creating next–generation logic and packaging technologies.” By summing up Intel announce plans to bring back a spiritual successor to its Intel Developer Forum conference with a new Intel Innovation event planned for October in San Francisco this fall as part of a new Intel On series of events.
Intel stands at a critical junction right now: the corporate faces increased competition from companies like AMD and Apple’s Arm-based M1 series of chips. On other other side it’s seems major change in leadership and delays of generations of its chips, all while being outpaced by competitors like TSMC in terms of production techniques.
Announcement today at Engineering the Future
