Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, many announce today that it has won Intel Corp’s contract to supply its mobile Internet device (MID) and the Intel Atom processor, a local media report yesterday.
This not only marks the first time that Intel, the world’s largest chipmaker, has outsourced its processor manufacturing, but also is an important contract for the Hsinchu-based TSMC for entering the contract manufacturing market for processors, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday.
Intel executive vice president Sean Maloney and TSMC global sales and marketing vice president Jason Chen (陳俊聖) will hold a joint press conference tonight at Intel’s executive briefing center in Santa Clara, California. TSMC chief executive Rick Tsai (蔡力行) will also attend, the report said.
Statistics provided by market research firm IC Insights Inc showed that Intel was the world’s largest semiconductor firm last year, while TSMC ranked fifth.
Intel chief executive officer Paul Otellini said last week that the company might outsource manufacturing of its Nand Flash memory chips, and a wire report said on Saturday that TSMC could be in talks with Intel over a new contract to supply Nand Flash.
The wire report, however, also said Anand Chandrasekher, senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s Ultra Mobility Group, had hinted that this press conference would be related to the Atom processor.
No matter whether Intel outsources its Nand Flash or Atom processor manufacturing to TSMC, it will help boost TSMC’s capacity utilization rate, the report said.
TSMC yesterday only confirmed that the press conference would be held today, but declined to reveal further information.
A Central News Agency report said that Intel had outsourced production of its South Bridge chips to TSMC in the past, but turned to self-production in recent years, citing an industry insider.
Since the onset of the global financial crisis late last year, many integrated device manufacturers have been forced to close their plants and outsource to contract manufacturers in a bid to lower costs.
In January, Intel also announced the restructuring of its production department, as well as the closure of five manufacturing facilities in Asia and the US.
From a cost perspective, an industry insider said Intel might outsource its orders to TSMC again, the report said.
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
Micron Technology Inc is a driving force pushing the US Congress to pass legislation that would put new export restrictions on equipment its Chinese competitors use to make their chips, according to people familiar with the matter. A US House of Representatives panel yesterday was to vote on the “MATCH Act,” a bill designed to close gaps in restrictions on chipmaking equipment. It would also pressure foreign companies that sell equipment to Chinese chipmaking facilities to align with export curbs on US companies like Lam Research Corp and Applied Materials Inc. The bill targets facilities operated by China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings’ planned acquisition of Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations has yet to enter the formal review stage, as regulators await supplementary documents, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said yesterday. Acting FTC Chairman Chen Chih-min (陳志民) told the legislature’s Economics Committee that although Grab submitted its application on March 27, the case has not been officially accepted because required materials remain incomplete. Once the filing is finalized, the FTC would launch a formal probe into the deal, focusing on issues such as cross-shareholding and potential restrictions on market competition, Chen told lawmakers. Grab last month announced that it would acquire
RSS