> I don't know where the notion of "Intel is about to die and TMSC will make us suffer due to monopoly" comes from Semiconductor R&D costs have been going up,

> I don't know where the notion of "Intel is about to die and TMSC will make us suffer due to monopoly" comes from Semiconductor R&D costs have been going up, companies consolidating or went into niches. There are jokes about having to buy from The Semiconductor Company® in the future. Intel is sitting on a lot of money, so they're not going to die soon. But they haven't been showing signs of improving the situation since 14nm was delayed in 2013. This saga didn't start with 10nm. Remember that the cadence used to be tick-tock every 18 months. We still can't get 10nm desktop chips. So there are some questions how they'll fare in the future.