Intel Secretly Visits TSMC Again, What's Up?

Illustration. (Photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Intel does not want its business to experience a prolonged crisis, for that Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger secretly visited the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).

The report, first leaked by Taiwanese media DigiTimes, mentioned that Gelsinger met with TSMC executives in an effort to secure additional sub-7nm production capacity and mature node output to support Intel's roadmap, as well as its overall business goals.

During the meeting, Gelsinger re-examined commitments to orders placed with the world's largest chipmaker, but made no mention of additional orders for CPUs, GPUs, or other products.

Perhaps, Gelsinger wanted a mature command node to support computer components. There are allegations that Intel's server shipments were slower than expected, due to a limited supply of components such as LAN chips (manufactured on mature nodes).

So it seems plausible that Gelsinger would add this type of chip to its TSMC shopping list.

After visiting Intel, Gelsinger then flew to Japan to talk with Tokyo Electron, and will return to the United States (US) after a stopover in India.

It is known, Gelsinger has also visited TSMC in mid-December 2021. During the visit he wasted a lot of time on necessary diplomatic matters. For example, he had to back away from comments about Taiwan as a geopolitically unstable risk just days before his visit.