Intel Drops a Bomb, Not the Ball

By Don Scansen , EETimes (March 26, 2021)

Is $20 billion a lot of money?

Intel rewarded the patient this week as Pat Gelsinger made some very big announcements about the formation of a standalone foundry business, increased partnerships with TSMC for manufacturing of Intel processor products, and a huge promised investment in new manufacturing plants in Arizona. EETimes editor Brian Santo provided an excellent synposis and analysis of Gelsinger’s web presentation.

Up front, let us not ignore the elephant. Rumors have swirled for a very long time that Intel needed to get out of manufacturing because it was “no longer competitive” with TSMC and Samsung. Gelsinger definitely put an exclamation point on his response to the doubters with a commitment of $20 billion to build two new fabs in Arizona.

Intel’s contract manufacturing (Intel Foundry Services) will be a standalone business with its president, Randhir Thakur, reporting directly to the Intel CEO.

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