Intel's incoming Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger dropped the gauntlet in a recent interview said "Intel will reclaim its chipmaking crown" as he will be replacing CEO Bob Swan February 15.
That's a very bold statement for Gelsinger to make. However, it's coming after Intel's 4th quarter earning surpassed analyst's expectations. It's an even bolder statement when you take into consideration that Intel struggled last year to make the switch from 10-nanometer chips to the now more common 7-nanometer chips. Last July they announced that the move would take them up to six months to accomplish.
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Bob Swan, the outgoing CEO of Intel, stated "We've been able to resolve the defects" that held back the 7nm process." Intel will be shooting for the crown in a crowded field currently led by Apple's recently introduced M1 chip, and the successful and ever-growing lineup of chips from AMD.
In an interesting change to Intel's strategy, they will be outsourcing some chip production to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, which also produces chips for AMD, Apple, Qualcomm, and Nvidia. My question is, who is the priority? How similar will the chipsets be and where will innovation come from? Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co has said they will be expanding manufacturing and are investing $28 billion to do so.
Intel still plans on producing chips in the United States and Gelsinger said. "I'm confident a majority of 2023 products will be manufactured internally." Intel has had several manufacturing issues over the years and was slow to move from 14nm to 10nm and then really struggled to get to 7nm. That being said, they've got a lot of catching up to do if they want to be king of the hill, A number, and top dog in the CPU arena again.
