> One of them (Intel) didn't make chips for anyone but themselves until about 4 months ago. actually iirc they've tried to get into the custom foundry business

> One of them (Intel) didn't make chips for anyone but themselves until about 4 months ago. actually iirc they've tried to get into the custom foundry business a couple times now (see: "Intel Custom Foundry" that got discontinued a couple years ago) but they never really attracted any major customers. https://semiwiki.com/semiconductor-manufacturers/intel/7912-intel-discontinues-the-custom-foundry-business/ https://semiwiki.com/semiconductor-manufacturers/intel/7912-... Part of this was due to the fact that Intel's design rules (the "rules" that govern chip design: how small wires and transistor features can be and so on) are completely different from every other foundry, so while porting from TSMC to Samsung or something like that certainly isn't easy, it's at least straightforward, whereas Intel's stack is basically totally different from everyone else's. One of the advantages Intel has is that the chip design and the process are tightly intertwined, if there is a problem with the chip design the designers can go down the hall and talk to the process people and see if they can come up with a solution at the process level. This obviously also became their downfall when 10nm slipped, and likely also it severely reduced their ability to sell their foundry services to other customers. According to that article they were apparently also rather secretive about their process (seeing it as part of their "special sauce" I guess) and I've heard many customers doubted Intel's commitment to the program as well as their neutrality. And I think the final piece of the puzzle was probably price - I'm guessing Intel was asking a royal sum compared to GF or Samsung or TSMC. After all... they're intel, and their process is the best! > One of the funniest stories I heard was about the first copy of the Intel 14nm design rules Atera got from Intel. They were heavily redacted, which is something I had never seen in the foundry business. After many delays Intel put their own implementation team on the first 14nm Altera tapeout and the result was a very competitive FPGA chip. If not for the continued delays, Xilinx would have been in serious trouble as the Intel 14nm FPGA, based on my experience with customers, beats the Xilinx 16nm in both density and performance. They are now trying to get back into the custom foundry business of course. Different management, and a very different business situation for Intel - if they can get other customers to help finance their node development that's a big win for them at this point.