Intel’s Collaboration with TSMC Upgraded to 3nm Process

On February 23, CNMO learned that Intel’s CEO, Pat Gelsinger, confirmed that their collaboration with TSMC has upgraded from the 5nm process to 3nm. He mentioned that the Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake computing chipsets (CPU tile) set to be launched in the fourth quarter of 2024 will be manufactured using TSMC’s 3nm process.

During the recent IFS Direct Connect event held by Intel, Pat Gelsinger addressed a question from TomsHardware, emphasizing that Intel is willing to manufacture chips for anyone, including competitors like AMD and NVIDIA. He aims to establish Intel Foundry Services as a leading foundry enterprise, directly competing with TSMC in terms of technology and production capacity, with a clear distinction between Intel’s own products and products manufactured by Intel Foundry Services. Indeed, later this year, Intel Foundry Services will be legally separated from Intel, becoming a distinct entity with the goal of serving global customers.

Pat Gelsinger believes that the only way for Intel Foundry Services to compete with TSMC is by offering customers cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing technology and innovative 3D packaging technology, rather than solely supplying their own products. This implies that the chips produced by Intel Foundry Services will directly rival Intel’s own products. To further their growth, Intel Foundry Services must refrain from any discriminatory practices and open their doors to collaboration with everyone in the industry.

In addition to opening up advanced semiconductor manufacturing technology to third parties, Intel Foundry Services’ mid-term goal is to enter the semi-custom market. According to Pat Gelsinger’s vision, Intel Foundry Services can provide customers with semi-custom chips incorporating different IPs, such as Intel compute modules with IA cores paired with NVIDIA GeForce RTX graphics modules.