Taiwanese pure play foundry TSMC apparently pitched U.S. chipmakers Nvidia, AMD and Broadcom about joining a venture that would operate out of Intel’s semiconductor fabs.
According to a report from Reuters, TSMC would run the operations of Intel’s foundry division and would make semiconductors for these companies along with other U.S. chipmakers, including possibly Qualcomm, who also may have been part of the pitch for the collaboration.
This potential collaboration comes after a report from the Wall Street Journal last month purported a potential deal between the world’s largest chipmaker and foundry, TSMC, and struggling Intel. That report said it could potentially involve TSMC sending engineers to one of Intel’s chip fabs to apply their expertise and “ensure its viability.” The factory then could be spun off from Intel and be run by TSMC under the foundry giant’s joint ownership platform.
Early stages
According to the report, the talks are in the early stages and come as U.S. President Donald Trump seeks to turn around Intel after it has been struggling financially. Intel may be looking to divest portions of its business including its FPGA division Altera, spinning off its RealSense division and even potentially ending its semiconductor manufacturing business.
Under the proposed JV, TSMC would take a more than 50% stake in Intel’s semiconductor fabs with the chipmakers in the collaboration also having a stake.
TSMC has established similar joint ventures like the Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Inc. (JASM) in Kumamoto, Prefecture, which features investments from Sony Semiconductor, Denso and Toyota Motors. The location would house two fabs in Japan and the huge investment is drawing more than 100 chip investments in the Kyushu, Japan, region since it was announced in 2021.
TSMC is similarly developing a fab in Dresden, Germany, part of its nearly $100 billion investments to expand its semiconductor manufacturing outside of its home base in Taiwan to Europe, the U.S. and Japan. Much like the JV in Japan, TSMC is seeking partnerships for investment and Bosch, Infineon and NXP are heavily involved in supporting semiconductors in automotive and industrial sectors where these chip fabs may play.
Intel reported a 2024 net loss of $18.8 billion, its first since 1986, driven by its fledgling businesses and foundry division. According to Reuters, Intel’s foundry division had a book value of $108 billion as of December 31, 2024.
