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Since the pandemic, the US government has attempted to make America more self-sufficient in producing advanced semiconductors. A big part of this effort is the CHIPS and Science Act, which will lavish billions of dollars on companies making semiconductors in the US, with Intel being the biggest beneficiary of that largesse. There’s only one problem: The biggest US-based companies still use TSMC. The US Commerce Secretary is reportedly working with Intel to try to change that alliance.
According to a new report from CNBC, US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo recently met with Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger to discuss the future of US-based chip production. In the meeting, Gelsinger expressed frustration with US companies still using TSMC. Notably, they’re the biggest AI companies in the world: Nvidia, AMD, and Apple. It should be noted Intel also TSMC for its new Lunar Lake CPUs and will likely use it for its next-generation Arrow Lake desktop CPUs as well, so there’s a bit of throwing stones in a glass house going on here.
TSMC is also making chips in the US via its Arizona fabs, though these facilities have been subjected to multiple delays.
Credit: TSMC
After the meeting, Secretary Raimondo reportedly met with several large public investors in Apple and Nvidia to remind them of the benefits of US-based chip production and the dangers of relying solely on Taiwan for AI chips. Taiwan could eventually be taken over by China, and such a scenario would plunge the country into an immediate recession, according to the Secretary’s previous comments. CNBC said Raimondo didn’t specifically mention Intel in these discussions.
If China invades Taiwan and takes TSMC’s fabs hostage, companies will likely have no choice but to immediately turn to another source to produce their products. Whether Intel or Samsung could make products competitive with TSMC is debatable. Intel is prepping its Intel 18A process for production in 2025, which Gelsinger has said will allow it to leapfrog TSMC in process leadership compared with its 3nm node.
Apple has already said it wants to buy US-made chips, but when it made that statement in 2022, it was referring to TSMC’s fabs in Arizona. Apple famously ditched Intel’s CPUs in 2020 for its M-series chips made by TSMC, and it has never signaled it would return to the fold.
An Intel-made Nvidia or AMD AI accelerator would be interesting, but we doubt it would ever see the light of day, given the competition between the companies involved. However, as Tom’s Hardware notes, Nvidia’s CEO has stated it would be willing to switch fabs if it had to, but it wouldn’t get the same performance or cost.