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Why would TSMC want to buy factories from Intel? Intels plants are far from start of the art. Given their inability to compete and catch up with TSMC

jabart 2y ago
I'm assuming TSMC has new and old lines. A 555 chip isn't done on the same line as an AMD Zen 5 chip. Permits, buildout, infrastructure, suppliers, you already get a big warehouse that makes chips and you can bring in your own people to optimize it on day one not year 4.
kyrra 2y ago
Lots of people still use older processor nodes. For example Groq[1] uses 14nm chips for their inference chips. Older fab tech is cheaper to use (less demand and higher yields). Most chips made are on older processes, it's only the bleeding-edge CPU/GPU chips that use bleeding-edge fab tech. [1] https://groq.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/GroqChip%E2%84%A2-Processor-Product-Brief-v1.7.pdf https://groq.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/GroqChip%E2%84%A...
hujun 2y ago
because Trump said TSMC is stealing US chip biz, and threaten 100% tariff [1]. I think this is TSMC's attempt to avoid tariff [1]https://www.pcmag.com/news/trump-intel-was-great-until-taiwan-took-our-chip-business-away-tsmc https://www.pcmag.com/news/trump-intel-was-great-until-taiwa...
edward28 2y ago
Intel has a couple of euv machines that tsmc could use and they could take Intel's current nodes and sell them as US made chips without threatening their own top nodes.
nsteel 2y ago
Ignoring their newer fabs for a minute (which do exist), because there's still a load of money to be made on reliable older nodes. This data is a couple years out of date now but it still shows how relevant older nodes are: https://stockdividendscreener.com/technology/semiconductor/tsmc-revenue-by-process-node/#B2 https://stockdividendscreener.com/technology/semiconductor/t...
suraci 2y ago
> Why would TSMC want to buy factories from Intel? I think the reason is obvious...it has no choice

jabart 2y ago

I'm assuming TSMC has new and old lines. A 555 chip isn't done on the same line as an AMD Zen 5 chip. Permits, buildout, infrastructure, suppliers, you already get a big warehouse that makes chips and you can bring in your own people to optimize it on day one not year 4.

kyrra 2y ago

Lots of people still use older processor nodes. For example Groq[1] uses 14nm chips for their inference chips. Older fab tech is cheaper to use (less demand and higher yields). Most chips made are on older processes, it's only the bleeding-edge CPU/GPU chips that use bleeding-edge fab tech. [1] https://groq.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/GroqChip%E2%84%A2-Processor-Product-Brief-v1.7.pdf https://groq.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/GroqChip%E2%84%A...

hujun 2y ago

because Trump said TSMC is stealing US chip biz, and threaten 100% tariff [1]. I think this is TSMC's attempt to avoid tariff [1]https://www.pcmag.com/news/trump-intel-was-great-until-taiwan-took-our-chip-business-away-tsmc https://www.pcmag.com/news/trump-intel-was-great-until-taiwa...

edward28 2y ago

Intel has a couple of euv machines that tsmc could use and they could take Intel's current nodes and sell them as US made chips without threatening their own top nodes.

nsteel 2y ago

Ignoring their newer fabs for a minute (which do exist), because there's still a load of money to be made on reliable older nodes. This data is a couple years out of date now but it still shows how relevant older nodes are: https://stockdividendscreener.com/technology/semiconductor/tsmc-revenue-by-process-node/#B2 https://stockdividendscreener.com/technology/semiconductor/t...

suraci 2y ago

> Why would TSMC want to buy factories from Intel? I think the reason is obvious...it has no choice