TSMC and Intel foundry joint venture reportedly still in the works — AMD, Broadcom, and Nvidia approached
Reaction of fabless designers unknown.

Although TSMC has committed to invest an additional $100 billion in its own Fab 21 campus in the U.S., a potential joint venture to run Intel's manufacturing capacity is still in the works, according to Reuters, citing four sources. TSMC would reportedly not own more than 50% of the proposed joint venture. A venture that would see leading American fabless chip designers — AMD, Broadcom, Nvidia, and Qualcomm — get stakes in the joint venture, which will be operated by TSMC.
The initiative emerged following a request from President Trump's administration, aiming to bolster Intel while ensuring continued American control. Under the terms of the proposed scheme, Intel will have to spin off its Intel Foundry (IF) division that produces chips for Intel and third-party customers, and then TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker, buys less than 50% of IF, leaving the rest to partners. TSMC reportedly initiated discussions with AMD, Broadcom, Nvidia, and Qualcomm, but the talks remain preliminary and sensitive, according to four anonymous sources familiar with these discussions. It is also noteworthy that TSMC has not pitched its main client, Apple, to invest in the JV.
The idea of such a collaboration aligns strategically with President Trump's goal to revive domestic advanced manufacturing, and reviving Intel is one of the administration's priorities. However, it is unclear whether splitting the company and handing its parts to TSMC helps with competition between foundries.
According to Reuters' sources, TSMC approached potential partners about the joint venture prior to its March 3 announcement of plans to invest an additional $100 billion in its U.S. manufacturing capacities, which includes the construction of five new Fab 21 modules over the next several years, building two advanced packaging facilities, and an R&D center. Discussions regarding the joint venture involving Intel's foundry division have continued since then, according to the three sources, with TSMC aiming to secure partnerships with multiple chip design companies.
Technical, operational, and business complexities present significant hurdles for the potential joint venture.
- According to an Intel filing with the SEC, Intel's manufacturing and real estate assets cost around $108 billion, so interested parties will have to invest tens of billions of dollars to get a sizeable stake in Intel Foundry.
- TSMC is unlikely to be interested in owning a 50% stake in a JV that uses its own process technologies and competes against the Taiwan foundry.
- Transferring TSMC's production nodes to Intel's advanced fabs with EUV tools is hard, if possible at all, as Intel and TSMC operate vastly different manufacturing processes, employing distinct equipment configurations and chemical substances at their respective fabs.
- Intel has fabs that can only produce chips using its own process technologies. These fabs — which cost tens of billions of dollars — will continue to serve Intel for a while, but they present little value for outside investors.
- It is unclear how operating a JV aligns with TSMC's own manufacturing operations in the U.S.
The news had immediate market implications. Intel's stock price rose more than 7% in pre-market U.S. trading following reports of this potential partnership, according to Reuters. However, it is unclear whether the aforementioned fabless semiconductor developers are interested in getting into manufacturing. All of them chose to be fabless because they did not want to get into a complex capital-intensive business, and it is unclear what could drive their interest towards putting tens of billions of dollars in a JV considering the fact that they already have pre-booked capacity at TSMC.
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Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.
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helper800 Imagine if the US government bought the 51% position in the JV and had it run by industry leaders. The US Department of Chip Fabrication. :LOL:Reply -
thestryker I still fail to see the logic behind this or why any of the governments who'd need to sign off on it would.Reply
TSMC already has around 67% of all foundry revenue in Q4 (Samsung is second at ~8%) according to TrendForce and that list doesn't include Intel. According to Intel's Q4 2024 financials foundry revenue was $4.5b which is higher than everyone other than TSMC and makes up around 17% of TSMC's revenue for Q4. Just adding Intel in as is (no big contract work yet) would push TSMC a bit over 70% while dropping Samsung to ~7.5%.
Then there's the practical side of this venture requiring guaranteed wafer buys from Intel which as we all know worked out real well for AMD with GloFo.
All this being said given the sheer incompetence of the Intel board and its idiotic makeup I wouldn't put it past them to try. -
Dustyboy1492 TSMC would love to have a monopoly on advanced nodes. What a terrible idea, just as Intel foundry services is ramping their leading edge 18A node. Makes more sense to merge IFS with global foundries and create a true competitor to TSMC.Reply -
cyrusfox
How does Intel Foundry being added to the pie of Semi Con Foundries cause TSMC Foundry revenue to climb from 67% to over 70%? Are you assuming the JV would be cumulative to their current contributions? I am confused.thestryker said:I still fail to see the logic behind this or why any of the governments who'd need to sign off on it would.
TSMC already has around 67% of all foundry revenue in Q4 (Samsung is second at ~8%) according to TrendForce and that list doesn't include Intel. According to Intel's Q4 2024 financials foundry revenue was $4.5b which is higher than everyone other than TSMC and makes up around 17% of TSMC's revenue for Q4. Just adding Intel in as is (no big contract work yet) would push TSMC a bit over 70% while dropping Samsung to ~7.5%.
Then there's the practical side of this venture requiring guaranteed wafer buys from Intel which as we all know worked out real well for AMD with GloFo.
All this being said given the sheer incompetence of the Intel board and its idiotic makeup I wouldn't put it past them to try. -
thestryker
If Intel sells off and it's a TSMC run venture why wouldn't one count it towards TSMC?cyrusfox said:How does Intel Foundry being added to the pie of Semi Con Foundries cause TSMC Foundry revenue to climb from 67% to over 70%? Are you assuming the JV would be cumulative to their current contributions? I am confused. -
cyrusfox
In a joint venture (JV), costs and revenues are shared. The article didn't mention selling Intel Foundry, but rather suggested co-utilization. Do you think Intel could offload the Foundry, especially to a foreign company? I doubt it, but a JV could be possible, although I think it is not strategical beneficial to either company(TSMC helping a competitor, Intel R&D vs TSMC clash). Regardless I don't see how TSMC would claim more than half of the Foundry's Revenue from a new JV. At most, they might realize up to 50% if the JV fully consumes what is currently Intel Foundry.thestryker said:If Intel sells off and it's a TSMC run venture why wouldn't one count it towards TSMC? -
thestryker
I think you missed my point entirely:cyrusfox said:In a joint venture (JV), costs and revenues are shared. The article didn't mention selling Intel Foundry, but rather suggested co-utilization. Do you think Intel could offload the Foundry, especially to a foreign company? I doubt it, but a JV could be possible, although I think it is not strategical beneficial to either company(TSMC helping a competitor, Intel R&D vs TSMC clash). Regardless I don't see how TSMC would claim more than half of the Foundry's Revenue from a new JV. At most, they might realize up to 50% if the JV fully consumes what is currently Intel Foundry.
The article literally says it'd be operated by TSMC which means it would no longer be run by Intel. This also means that it could never be a true competitor to TSMC. So while TSMC wouldn't specifically be taking home all of the revenue they'd still be controlling that amount of the market. -
TerryLaze thestryker said:I think you missed my point entirely:
The article literally says it'd be operated by TSMC which means it would no longer be run by Intel. This also means that it could never be a true competitor to TSMC. So while TSMC wouldn't specifically be taking home all of the revenue they'd still be controlling that amount of the market.and then TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker, buys less than 50% of IF
TSMC couldn't operate it on its own with only 49% ,51% would still stay with intel.
They would name TSMC as the operator for press reasons but decisions would have to be agreed upon by intel.
Still would only affect the FABs on US soil while intel has FABs in other countries as well.
Also most if not all of intels new FABs are co funded already with intel only owning 51% of them anyway.
https://bip.brookfield.com/press-releases/bip/brookfield-infrastructure-signs-definitive-agreement-intel
Also it would take a few years of intel doing as badly as 2024 for intel to even start considering selling off their stake of the FABs. -
thestryker
Clearly you didn't read either article if you think that's what this is about so here's a quote:TerryLaze said:TSMC couldn't operate it on its own with only 49% ,51% would still stay with intel.
They would name TSMC as the operator for press reasons but decisions would have to be agreed upon by intel.
Still would only affect the FABs on US soil while intel has FABs in other countries as well.
Also most if not all of intels new FABs are co funded already with intel only owning 51% of them anyway.
https://bip.brookfield.com/press-releases/bip/brookfield-infrastructure-signs-definitive-agreement-intel
Also it would take a few years of intel doing as badly as 2024 for intel to even start considering selling off their stake of the FABs.
Under the proposal, the Taiwanese chipmaking giant would run the operations of Intel's foundry division
Also if you think Intel retains majority what would other stakeholders have?