TSMC’s CEO, C.C. Wei, has discussed the attention surrounding Intel, driven by investments from NVIDIA and others, claiming that Team Blue is both a competitor and a customer at the same time.
Intel Doesn’t Plan On Dropping TSMC As a Foundry Source Anytime Soon For Its Consumer Products
When discussing the recent sentiment surrounding Intel, a case has been made that the industry claims Team Blue’s foundry services are shaping up to be a direct competitor to TSMC’s products. Interestingly, at the Q3 earnings call, TSMC’s C.C. Wei responded to claims that TSMC is facing increased rivalry, and he managed to throw a ‘shade’ on Intel, while also being confident that the Taiwan giant will retain its leadership, credited to initiatives like Foundry 2.0. Here’s what he had to say when asked about investments into Intel by TSMC’s US clients.
Talking about our competition in the US, well, that competitor is happened to be our customer, very good customer. So in fact, we are working with them to for their both advanced product. Other than that, I don’t want to make any more comment.
These are certainly interesting claims made by C.C. Wei, and there’s no doubt that Intel is heavily reliant on the Taiwanese giant for some of its flagship consumer products. More importantly, Intel has repeatedly affirmed its stance of utilizing TSMC for its chip needs, as seen in ventures such as Nova Lake, so TSMC’s CEO isn’t wrong here at all. The scenario in which Intel can become a viable competitor to TSMC in the semiconductor industry is if the firm manages to develop capable chip processes and foundry capacity, which is yet another hypothetical scenario.
Intel’s push towards becoming an alternative to TSMC doesn’t bother the Taiwan giant, to say the least, mainly because the chip giant has managed to capture the entire semiconductor ecosystem, not just the production ecosystem. TSMC now has a dedicated packaging, testing/validation, mask making, and other back-end processes, which have significantly expanded the firm’s addressable market. This allows the firm to have a significantly greater influence over the supply chain, to the point where competitors must ‘think twice’ before switching to an entirely new supplier, such as the IFS.
Of course, TSMC has constraints that might give its competitors room to grow, such as capacity issues; however, based on how the firm has been moving forward, it is certain that TSMC’s importance in the foundry market cannot be ignored, and its influence will only continue to evolve.
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