Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer TSMC is reportedly taking interest in Intel's stateside manufacturing plants claims The Wall Street Journal in an article published on Saturday. The news follows Trump's recent claims that the United States will be "placing tariffs on foreign production of computer chips" in the near future.
The fear of Trump's tariffs has sent the wider industry into a panic, with a large percentage of semiconductor fabrication taking place overseas leading many to hypothesize an exponential increase in the cost of consumer technology is on the horizon.
TSMC's interest in Intel's stateside manufacturing facilities may be how it sees its way around these impending tariffs, but not everybody at Intel appreciates talk of a potential acquisition.
Trump's tariffs have sent the industry into a panic
In January, the CTA (Consumer Technology Association) filed a report with several predictions on how much computing hardware costs could climb following Trump's planned tariffs.
The CTA claims we could see a rise in price as high as 40% for video game consoles, 46% for laptops, and 26% for smartphones. While we have no idea when exactly Trump will enact these tariffs, recent news suggests he's unwavering in his plans. On Thursday, Trump claimed that "Taiwan took our chip business away ... It was taken from us, and we want that business back. We want it back in the United States."
However, Trump doesn't seem particularly concerned with how much damage it could do to the industry, believing any short-term disruption to the cost of consumer tech as being worth it in the long run, stating "There could be some short-term disturbance, but long-term, it's gonna make our country a fortune."
We've previously covered how expensive hardware could get under these new tariffs, and it revealed that Intel was the most prepared compared to competitors to weather this impending storm as the company already has manufacturing plants littered across Arizona, New Mexico, and Oregon.
In 2011, Intel claimed that "roughly three-fourths of the company's microprocessor manufacturing is done here in America." That was a long time ago, and there's no telling how much of its manufacturing is done in the United States now, but considering TSMC's reported interest in acquiring Intel's manufacturing plants, it must be a significant operation.
But why is Intel such a target? Following a failure to meet the financial predictions of its latest AI chips, Intel cut 15% of its workforce (~18,000 jobs) in 2024, with then CEO Pat Gelsinger also stepping down in response. This shake-up for Intel has many believing that the company could be open to selling off parts of its business, with Bloomberg reporting that Qualcomm was initially interested in acquiring the company for a brief period.
TSMC already manufactures microprocessors for AMD, Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Apple, but the majority of its fabrication is happening in Taiwan, making it a prime target for Trump's tariffs. While Apple has begun manufacturing chips in America, its facilities are nowhere near enough to cover the enormity of the company's production.
TSMC acquiring Intel's statewide manufacturing plants could allow it to bypass Trump's tariffs quicker than it would take to build entirely new production plants in the United States, while also expanding its business to meet rising demand. It's also possible that manufacturers will build these plants without TSMC, although TSMC is still working with Apple for its stateside manufacturing.
TSMC's acquisition of Intel's manufacturing could be an enormous investment and have a sizeable impact on the tech market. However, not everyone at Intel is happy about TSMC's purported interest.
This Intel employee doesn't want to be acquired by TSMC
Joseph Bonetti, Principal Engineering Program Manager at Intel Corporation, wrote a LinkedIn post on Sunday specifically asking for any potential acquisition not to happen. In the post, Bonetti writes "Intel Leaders, Intel Board, Trump Administration, please don't sell out/and or give control of Intel Foundry to TSMC, just as Intel is taking a technical lead and getting out of first gear. This would be a horrible, demoralizing mistake."
While TSMC's reasons for wanting to acquire Intel's manufacturing plants aren't explicitly stated. Bonetti isn't shy in reading between the lines. He writes "Technical competition from Intel plus the threat of tariffs are jointly a huge problem for TSMC. Handing over control of Intel's foundries solves this problem for TSMC, but hurts Intel, hurts US leadership, and gives credibility to the false idea that Intel Foundry is not as advanced as TSMC."
It's fair to point out that there's a chance the United States doesn't allow an acquisition like this to go through. On Thursday, Trump, perhaps harboring fondness for the American-based company originally founded in Mountain View, California, stated "We had Intel, we had these great companies that did so well. It was taken from us."
As it stands, Trump's tariffs could come into effect as soon as April 2, 2025, with Howard Lutnick claiming "Our studies should be complete by April 1. We will hand the president the opportunity to start on April 2, if he wants."
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