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I'm a US citizen that has worked in the semiconductor industry for 25 years. Since 2005 every chip I have worked on (over 75) has been manufactured overseas at

I'm a US citizen that has worked in the semiconductor industry for 25 years. Since 2005 every chip I have worked on (over 75) has been manufactured overseas at TSMC or Samsung. Every time Intel decides to get into the foundry business for external customers they end up cancelling their plans in a couple of years. I can find articles from around 2002 and again around 2010. I even interviewed with Open Silicon which was started by a bunch of former Intel people that were frustrated with Intel's lack of commitment to supporting external customers. I know 3 VPs that basically said "We don't trust Intel to actually make our chips on time because when Intel's business picks up they will prioritize making their own chips over ours or they will not make as much in the foundry business and cancel it like they did before."

bcrl 4y ago
There is a risk that Intel gets too much money to build too many fabs too fast. If they don't manage that correctly, the could end up getting buried by the operational costs of keeping inactive fabs open because they were built with government dollars that came with strings (in the forms of jobs they have to provide) attached to them. It's a good thing AMD spun off Global Foundries 15 years ago -- they're in a far better position today than they were then. It might just about be time for Intel to do the same.