Intel and TSMC have decided to start cooperation on advanced manufacturing processes. According to TSMC’s supply chain, Intel will lead Apple and be the first to use TSMC’s 3nm process to produce graphics chips and server processors. Wafer production will begin in TSMC's 18b factory in Q2 next year, and mass production will begin in July next year. The actual mass production time is one year earlier than the original plan.
TSMC’s supply chain also revealed that in order to welcome Intel, this heavyweight customer, TSMC is intensively carrying out 3nm factory installation operations. This is not the first time Intel has approached TSMC to OEM chips. Intel has always been an old customer of TSMC, but it has never approached them to OEM its core products before.
But this time, Intel's orders to TSMC are all for core products, including a graphics chip and three server processors, with the first batch of about 4,000 pieces. These four products will be officially produced and delivered in May next year, and will be mass-produced in July next year, and will soon be increased to tens of thousands of pieces, one year earlier than the original schedule. It is expected that the product design will be finalized at TSMC's Zhuke 12 fab, and then moved to Nanke 18b to prepare for mass production.
briefly introduces TSMC's 3-nanometer flagship factory 18b. Its factory area is planned to include four factories, P5 to P8. It is the core factory area for the 3-nanometer process. It can be said that the world's most expensive semiconductor equipment is concentrated here.
There were news rumors as early as early July that TSMC had a new big customer. Many people wondered whether it was Intel. Although TSMC stated at the time that it would not make any comment on customer orders. However, when a shareholder once asked TSMC Chairman Liu Deyin what he thought of Intel's move into foundry manufacturing, he once said: "Intel is a customer of TSMC, and he believes that Intel will also adopt TSMC's innovative technologies." Some media analysis shows that he has long had an opinion on Intel's adoption of TSMC's most advanced 3-nanometer process.
Of course, Intel has not explicitly rejected the OEM method. It only mentioned three selection principles of outsourcing or self-production, and needs to comprehensively evaluate the three major factors such as cost, production capacity and production flexibility.
In recent years, the first customer of TSMC’s latest manufacturing process has been Apple, which mainly produces the A-series processors that Apple uses in its new iPhone models that year. As Intel becomes TSMC's first customer in the world to adopt 3nm production, it means that Intel affirms that TSMC's 3nm process technology prioritizes Samsung.
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