The war for supremacy in the semiconductor sector has gained a new dimension. Intel, the largest US manufacturer of integrated circuits, is shifting to a new production model. Thanks to this, it wants to offer “the most flexible supply chain in the world,” as company representatives pointed out during a conference dedicated to the new plans. It will mean an updated business model Entering a market that has been dominated by Asian companies until now.
This is about producing integrated circuits according to external designs and not yet according to the designs of Intel engineers. This means that The company's factories will be able to produce chips designed by other companies, such as Microsoft or perhaps Nvidia.
Intel has been preparing to adopt the new model for three years. – This is how long it took to rebuild the company and prepare it for the new era of artificial intelligence – Pat Gelsinger, the company's managing director, said at the conference.
It is also part of the supply chain creation strategy Building and developing new factories that handle the different stages of chip production. One of these investments will be the opening of an integration and testing facility near Wrocław. Company representatives confirmed this during the conference The company maintains plans to build new factories in Europe and expand the Irish factory currently in operation.
But the revolutionary changes announced at an event in San Jose, Silicon Valley's largest city, are centered around adoption New production model. So far, the company has produced processors designed by Intel engineers. It now wants to become an important player in the customized production sector based on offshore projects (the so-called foundry sector). Thus you will compete with the dominant Asian companies in this market.
Intel will continue to offer devices based on its technology. The new sector, Intel Foundry, will move towards a model of producing custom-designed integrated circuits by other companies.
Taiwanese companies operate in the foundry sector tsmc, It is currently the world's largest chip manufacturer and one of Intel's main competitors. Second place goes to Samsung. The model that Intel now wants to implement, i.e. production according to its own design and to order, has been implemented by the Korean company for several years.
However, Intel's ambition is to surpass Samsung in the coming years. By 2030, the American company wants to become the second largest manufacturer in the foundry sector in the world. It won't be an easy task. The company currently expects orders worth 15 billion dollars. To beat its Korean rival, it will have to achieve the same level of order value within six years 100 billion dollars – Pat Gelsinger, the company's managing director, said at the conference.
High hopes to reach this level Intel Corporation It depends on the development of artificial intelligence. Sam Altman, the man behind the popular OpenAI and ChatGPT, appeared at the conference. – The development of artificial intelligence will mean market needs that we have not yet been able to estimate. For example, with phones – we know how to predict how many chips will be needed for smartphones in the next few years. When it comes to artificial intelligence, the needs and the entire market will be completely different, Altman said.
– To seriously invest in artificial intelligence, innovations in processors are needed. They should have more computing power while consuming less power, said Stu Pan, Intel's vice president in charge of Intel's foundry services. The new model aims to open the company to collaborations with designers from companies like Microsoft that have a strong focus on artificial intelligence.
During a conference in San Jose, Microsoft Managing Director Satya Nadella announced that it would use Intel's 18A technology and its foundry services to produce a new proprietary chip, but not many details were revealed. However, it is known that Microsoft is one of the Silicon Valley companies that focuses heavily on artificial intelligence.
Intel's plans to expand into a new market are also part of the US government's strategy. – We've never done anything like this before, or at least not for a long time – Gina Raimondo, US Secretary of Commerce, said at the conference on competition in the semiconductor market.
– Creating a precedent for such a strategic action by the US government in the field of technology, We'll have to go back in time sixty years to the Space Race. I believe this was the closest the U.S. government, private sector, and academia could come to working together to maintain American technological leadership in the face of fierce competition. naturally, Then it was Russia, now it is other countries – I talked about the policy of the Joe Biden administration. – We will invest billions of dollars for this purpose – she added.
But it did not indicate whether Joe Biden's government had decided to obtain the billions of dollars in support that Intel is counting on. As Bloomberg recently reported, American The company relies on support worth $10 billion from its government. Stock market investors were also counting on confirmation that the money would go to Intel.
Announcing a new business strategy without this specificity would not have been enough to push the company's shares higher. Intel shares rose shortly after the conference began and the plans were officially announced, but then began to decline. Like other technology companies listed in the Dow Jones Index, it is affected by investor concerns about Nvidia's quarterly results.
The market was concerned that it would not be enough to justify the company's current valuation. The weak results may also mean that the AI boom we have seen over the past year may be built on shakier foundations than previously thought. However, in the end, Nvidia – just after the stock market closed – posted better-than-expected data.
This is what pushed the Dow Jones index higher. Intel after losing 2.36 percent. During the day, it closed at $43.47 per share, up 1.38%, and at 19:59 New York time, its shares were worth $44.07.
Martina Maciewicz from San Jose
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