Intel announced today that it will reorganize its corporate structure, and the IFS department in charge of wafer foundry will operate independently. According to UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri’s prediction, Intel’s next step will be to completely spin off the foundry business to avoid concerns about competing with customers.
▲ Source: Intel
Arcuri said that Intel’s independent operation of the foundry business is based on TSMC’s business strategy of “not competing with customers”, but the market’s response to Intel’s independent operation of the foundry business has been cold, and Intel’s stock price fell sharply today. 6%.
▲ Source: Intel
According to reports, Wei Zhejia, president of TSMC, previously publicly stated at a technical forum that the key to TSMC’s success lies in the trust of customers. “Customers succeed first, and TSMC can follow suit.” This is something that competitors cannot do. TSMC does not have its own products and will not compete with customers.
▲ Source: Intel
Arcuri said he has long believed that Intel should pursue an external foundry model. Considering Intel’s desire to develop the foundry business, increasing investment in advanced technology R&D, and restrictions on the US Department of Commerce’s semiconductor subsidy conditions, it is almost a foregone conclusion that Intel will abandon internal manufacturing and switch to the external foundry. Intel’s next step needs to be completely split The IFS department is responsible for wafer fabrication.
▲ Source: Intel
Arcuri pointed out that Intel should be split according to the model of the foundry business and fabless product business. Separating the financial statements of the two major businesses is the most important first step. Because Intel found in the survey that all potential major customers of the foundry business said that if they need to compete with Intel itself for foundry resources, they will not choose Intel’s foundry services. Arcuri predicts that Intel’s next step may be to completely spin off the foundry business to avoid concerns about competing with customers.
▲ Source: Globalfoundries
It is noticed that Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger hopes to replace Samsung in 2023 and become the world’s second-largest foundry business. In addition, Pat Gelsinger also said that appropriate firewalls will be set up to distinguish customer information and protect customer-sensitive design data.
▲ Source: Globalfoundries
According to reports, Intel’s biggest competitor, AMD, sold its manufacturing business Globalfoundries to the Mubadala Fund of the United Arab Emirates in 2008 and transformed it into a fabless semiconductor company. Globalfoundries is now the world’s third largest wafer foundry, second only to TSMC and Samsung, but if Samsung is excluded for its own chip foundry, GlobalFoundries ranks second.
