Intel Corp is expanding semiconductor capacity in the US, Europe and Asia as part of its efforts to satisfy the world’s need for a geographically balanced supply chain, while Taiwan has built itself into a foundry hub of Asia, CEO Pat Gelsinger told a media briefing in Taipei yesterday.
As a major part of its IDM2.0 (integrated device manufacturing) strategy, Intel aims to become a leading foundry service supplier to the world, Gelsinger said.
Taiwan has strong foundry companies, but Intel believes that “as the world wants a resilient geopolitical balanced supply chain, so our strategy is to align with that,” Gelsinger said. “Other than a strong Asian supply chain, with the hub built in Taiwan, there will be the need for a strong supply chain in America and Europe.”
Photo: Bloomberg
To address such needs, the US chipmaker is building a diverse manufacturing network around the world with multiple manufacturing operations in the US, Europe and Asia, he said.
In the US, Intel is building new fabs in Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico and Ohio, he said. The company also operates fabs in Israel and has unveiled major investment plans in Ireland, Poland and Germany to build leading-edge semiconductor factories, he said.
In Asia, Intel is expanding its footprint in Malaysia and Vietnam. The chipmaker is deploying wafer-level assembly and chip packaging manufacturing capabilities in Malaysia, Gelsinger said.
Intel’s investment in building geographically diversified fabs is well justified, as the global semiconductor market is expanding rapidly and is expected to reach an estimated US$1 trillion by the end of this decade from US$600 billion last year, he said.
To become a reliant foundry service provider, Gelsinger said Intel has to be “customer-obsessed,” as it has to become customers’ factories.
“No matter what, a good factory is making products that make their customers successful. Intel was never customer-oriented. We were a leadership technology provider,” Gelsinger said.
Commenting on growing competition from computers powered by ARM-based chips, Gelsinger said ARM has been unable to gain a sizeable share of the world’s PC market. At the same time, a growing number of companies are ushering into artificial-intelligence-enabled PCs, and Intel expects shipments of AI PCs to rise to 100 million units in 2025, he said.
Intel sees ARM-based chipmakers as potential customers of its foundry services, given that Intel’s OpenVINO, an open-source toolkit for optimizing and deploying AI inference, supports the ARM architecture, he said.
Gelsinger also told Intel’s local partners in Taipei that the company is confident about reaching its goal of delivering five advanced process nodes in four years. After successfully shipping the first node, the Intel 7 processor, Intel is on schedule to ramp up production of the Intel 18A, the last node of the plan, in the second half of next year.
Gelsinger took the reign of Intel in 2021.
Showing support for Intel, Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) chairman Jonney Shih (施崇棠) yesterday demonstrated the generative AI features on PCs.
UNPRECEDENTED PACE: Micron Technology has announced plans to expand manufacturing capabilities with the acquisition of a new chip plant in Miaoli Micron Technology Inc unveiled a newly acquired chip plant in Miaoli County yesterday, as the company expands capacity to meet growing demand for advanced DRAM chips, including high-bandwidth memory chips amid the artificial intelligence boom. The plant in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), which Micron acquired from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion, is expected to make a sizeable capacity contribution to the company from fiscal 2028, the company said in a statement. It would be an extended production site of Micron’s large-scale manufacturing hub in Taichung, the company said. As the global semiconductor industry is racing to reach US$1 trillion
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
ABOVE LEGAL REQUIREMENT: The Ministry of Economic Affairs is prepared if LNG supply is disrupted, with more than the legal requirement of 11 days of inventory Taiwan has largely secured liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies through May and arranged about half of June’s supply, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday. Since the Middle East conflict began on Feb. 28, Taiwan’s LNG inventories have remained more than 12 days, exceeding the legal requirement of 11 days, indicating no major supply concerns for domestic gas and electricity, Kung said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. The ministry aims to increase the figure to 14 days by the end of next year, he said. While one or two LNG or crude oil shipments for May
Taiwan’s food delivery market could undergo a major shift if Singapore-based Grab Holdings Ltd completes its planned acquisition of Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan, industry experts said. Grab on Monday last week announced it would acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations for US$600 million. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of this year, with Grab aiming to complete user migration to its platform by the first half of next year. A duopoly between Uber Eats and Foodpanda dominates Taiwan’s delivery market, a structure that has remained intact since the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) blocked Uber Technologies Inc’s
RSS