Chalk up another win for Intel’s Foundry Services as the company has been awarded a contract to provide commercial foundry services for the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD).
The contract, called Rapid Assured Microelectronics Prototypes-Commercial (RAMP-C), calls on the development of U.S.-based commercial semiconductor foundry ecosystem to fabricate the assured custom and integrated circuits.
The contact comes after Intel said it will provide foundry services for Amazon and Qualcomm.
The long-term goal for Intel is to provide foundry services for both the U.S. and Europe to help build momentum for U.S. domestic semiconductor manufacturing. Intel wants one-third of all chips to be made in the U.S. Currently, only 12% of all chips are made in the U.S. and more than 80% of manufacturing capacity is concentrated in Asia. If nothing is done to improve the situation, the U.S. will fall even further behind in the coming years.
“One of the most profound lessons of the past year is the strategic importance of semiconductors, and the value to the United States of having a strong domestic semiconductor industry,” said Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel. “Intel is the sole American company both designing and manufacturing logic semiconductors at the leading edge of technology. When we launched Intel Foundry Services earlier this year, we were excited to have the opportunity to make our capabilities available to a wider range of partners, including in the U.S. government, and it is great to see that potential being fulfilled through programs like RAMP-C.”
Intel said it will work with IBM, Cadence, Synopsys and others to support the government’s needs for designing and manufacturing ICs.
Intel is making moves beyond its foundry business to support the need for growing U.S. domestic semiconductor manufacturing, investing about $20 billion in two new fabs to be built at its Ocotillo campus in Chandler, Arizona.
The RAMP-C program was created to facilitate the use of a commercially viable onshore foundry ecosystem for DOD access to microelectronics.
