Intel wants to burn its chips in 3nm at TSMC … but without bothering Apple
The ability to TSMC to descend to the fineness of engraving in 3nm interests more and more people in the tech sector. Yes Apple, TSMC’s main customer, is of course already in the niche for its next ranges ofApple Silicon and of Ax (2023), it seems that Intel has also joined the ranks.
If we are to believe DigiTimes (which has been very vocal on the subject for a few days), Intel would like to have TSMC manufacture some of its next processors in order to take advantage of 3nm engraving. But Intel executives would not be very keen for this merger with TSMC to result in friction with Apple. The risk is that the Cupertino firm raises the tone and derail the agreement with Intel in order to reserve the bulk of production capacity.
With this in mind, several Intel representatives would travel to Taiwan in mid-December to meet their TSMC counterparts, the objective being to prepare the ground so as not to make too many waves.