Intel Corp CEO Pat Gelsinger is to visit Taiwan and Malaysia next week for talks that show how manufacturing in Asia is crucial to his efforts to turn around the fortunes of the world’s largest chipmaker by revenue.
Gelsinger’s trip is to include a meeting with leaders of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with his plans said.
Intel needs TSMC’s advanced manufacturing services and plans to compete with the Taiwanese company in the foundry business, a tricky balancing act for the CEO.
Photo: Bloomberg
This is Gelsinger’s first trip to Asia since taking the top job at Intel earlier this year and comes as he publicly lobbies the US government to allocate money for the country’s chip industry to domestic companies only.
He has said that overseas manufacturers — such as TSMC and Samsung Electronics Co, which both have plans to build plants in the US — should not get money through the Chips Act, which is going through political approvals in Washington.
As part of those efforts, he has said that the concentration of advanced manufacturing in Taiwan is a strategic risk.
TSMC is both a threat to Intel and an interim solution to issues that have seen the US giant lose manufacturing leadership in the chip industry, the foundation of its dominance for three decades.
Rivals such as Nvidia Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc use TSMC’s production to make chips they say are better than Intel’s offerings. Market share losses and weak earnings from Intel have helped bolster their case.
Part of Gelsinger’s answer to that is a strategy for combining parts of processors made by TSMC with other contributions from his own factories to produce more competitive computer components.
At the same time he is investing heavily to improve his own production to the point where he should no longer need TSMC’s cutting-edge production.
He plans to open factories that would make semiconductors for other companies, which is the foundry business model that TSMC pioneered.
While that gives TSMC some leverage, it is also left with some tricky decisions. The kind of production that Intel wants, and the huge volume of orders it could provide, are potentially lucrative for the Taiwanese company. Intel still has about an 80 percent share of the computer processor market.
Gelsinger has said that competition and cooperation between companies is nothing new and technology is full of such arrangements.
Intel has long used TSMC for manufacturing of less-important support chips for computers and other parts of its portfolio.
TSMC’s rapid rise has been built on navigating the complex web of rivalries among its customers, of guaranteeing impartiality and of pushing forward production technology quickly. Its customers include Apple Inc, Qualcomm Inc, Sony Group Corp, as well as Nvidia and AMD.
Gelsinger is also to visit Malaysia, where COVID-19-related shutdowns of plants have hurt chip supply for many companies.
Intel relies on the Southeast Asian country for some of its chip packaging operations, the critical last step in the semiconductor manufacturing process.
SETBACK: Apple’s India iPhone push has been disrupted after Foxconn recalled hundreds of Chinese engineers, amid Beijing’s attempts to curb tech transfers Apple Inc assembly partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has recalled about 300 Chinese engineers from a factory in India, the latest setback for the iPhone maker’s push to rapidly expand in the country. The extraction of Chinese workers from the factory of Yuzhan Technology (India) Private Ltd, a Hon Hai component unit, in southern Tamil Nadu state, is the second such move in a few months. The company has started flying in Taiwanese engineers to replace staff leaving, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named, as the
The prices of gasoline and diesel at domestic fuel stations are to rise NT$0.1 and NT$0.4 per liter this week respectively, after international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to rise to NT$27.3, NT$28.8 and NT$30.8 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to rise to NT$26.2 per liter at CPC stations and NT$26 at Formosa pumps, they said. The announcements came after international crude oil prices
SinoPac Financial Holdings Co (永豐金控) is weighing whether to add a life insurance business to its portfolio, but would tread cautiously after completing three acquisitions in quick succession, president Stanley Chu (朱士廷) said yesterday. “We are carefully considering whether life insurance should play a role in SinoPac’s business map,” Chu told reporters ahead of an earnings conference. “Our priority is to ensure the success of the deals we have already made, even though we are tracking some possible targets.” Local media have reported that Mercuries Life Insurance Co (三商美邦人壽), which is seeking buyers amid financial strains, has invited three financial
CAUTION: Right now, artificial intelligence runs on faith, not productivity and eventually, the risk of a bubble will emerge,’ TIER economist Gordon Sun said Taiwanese manufacturers turned more optimistic last month, ending a five-month streak of declining sentiment as concerns over US tariffs, currency volatility and China’s overcapacity began to ease, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) said yesterday. The manufacturing business confidence index rose 1.17 points from June to 86.8, its first rebound since February. TIER economist Gordon Sun (孫明德) attributed the uptick to fading trade uncertainties, a steadier New Taiwan dollar and reduced competitive pressure from Chinese producers. Taiwan’s semiconductor industry is unlikely to face significant damage from Washington’s ongoing probe into semiconductors, given the US’ reliance on Taiwanese chips to power artificial
RSS