Intel in Early Talks with AMD for Potential Foundry Deal, Reports Say
Intel is in low-profile talks with its much larger competitor AMD to make them a customer for its foundry services. AMD would use Intel's upcoming manufacturing processes for potential foundry deals under discussion like the 18A and 14A nodes, according to the latest report from Semafor.
A Strategic Move for IFS
Having AMD on the books as an IFS customer would be quite significant since IFS is actively on the lookout for large external customers. The report opines that the growing momentum around Intel due to interest from NVIDIA and Apple provides a conducive environment for such coupling. An agreement between the two traditional rivals would be a game changer in the semiconductor world.
Possible Factors Incentivizing the Discussions
The report hints at both commercial and political motives propelling a possible Intel-AMD alliance. Having such cooperation could act as leverage for these companies in negotiations with the U.S. government, which has demonstrated its interest in fortifying domestic chip manufacturing.
On the product side, this would not be the first time the two collaborated. Back in 2018, they engaged in the Kaby Lake-G line that combined Intel CPUs with AMD's Radeon RX Vega GPU chiplets. This past cooperation speaks volumes of their already established relationship for any future cooperation.
What a Partnership Might Look Like
While talks are still in the initial stage, speculation suggests that AMD may shift some of its CPU production over to Intel's fabs. Rumored use of Intel's 18A node for AMD's EPYC "Venice" CPUs would then diversify AMD's manufacturing beyond single partner TSMC.
The success of such collaboration would highly rely on the performance of Intel's upcoming 18A process. If Intel were able to offer competitive yield rates and performance, it would greatly lessen TSMC's prominence as the sole partner in this space, especially referenced against the backdrop of current geopolitical machinations surrounding the Taiwanese foundry.
