Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Wednesday said that a new chip manufacturing technology called “A16” is to enter production in the second half of 2026, setting up a showdown with longtime rival Intel over who can make the fastest chips.
TSMC, the world’s biggest contract manufacturer of advanced computing chips and a key supplier to Nvidia and Apple, announced the news at a conference in Santa Clara, California, where TSMC executives said that makers of artificial intelligence (AI) chips will likely be the first adopters of the technology rather than a smartphone maker.
Analysts said that the technologies announced on Wednesday could call into question Intel’s claims in February that it could overtake TSMC in making the world’s fastest computing chips with a new technology that Intel calls “14A.”
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
TSMC senior vice president of business development Kevin Zhang (張曉強) said that the company had developed its new A16 chipmaking process faster than expected because of demand from AI chip firms, without naming specific customers.
AI chip firms “really want to optimize their designs to get every ounce of performance we have,” Zhang said.
TSMC does not believe it needs to use ASML’s new “High NA EUV” lithography machines to build the A16 chips, Zhang said.
Intel last week revealed that it plans to be the first to use the machines, which can cost US$373 million each, to develop its 14A chip.
TSMC also revealed a new technology for supplying power to computer chips from the backside, which helps speed up AI chips and is to be available in 2026.
Intel has announced a similar technology that is intended to be one of its primary competitive advantages.
The announcements called into question Intel’s claims that it could retake the world chipmaking crown, analysts said.
“It’s debatable, but on some metrics, I don’t think they’re [Intel] ahead,” said Dan Hutcheson, vice chair at analyst firm TechInsights.
However, Kevin Krewell, a principal at TIRIAS Research, said that both Intel and TSMC remain years away from delivering the technology and would need to prove that real chips match their keynote presentations.
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