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Seems like the largest ever capex approved by the Board of TSMC in their quarterly board meetings:
4. To meet long-term capacity plans based on market demand forecasts and TSMC’s technology development roadmap, the Board approved capital appropriations of approximately US$44,962.00 million for purposes including: 1) Installation and upgrade of advanced technology capacity; 2) Installation and upgrade of advanced packaging, mature and/or specialty technology capacity; 3) Fab construction, and installation of fab facility systems. https://pr.tsmc.com/english/news/3287
Seems like the largest ever capex approved by the Board of TSMC in their quarterly board meetings:
4. To meet long-term capacity plans based on market demand forecasts and TSMC’s technology development roadmap, the Board approved capital appropriations of approximately US$44,962.00 million for purposes including: 1) Installation and upgrade of advanced technology capacity; 2) Installation and upgrade of advanced packaging, mature and/or specialty technology capacity; 3) Fab construction, and installation of fab facility systems. https://pr.tsmc.com/english/news/3287
TSMC projects a 2026 total capital expenditure (capex) of $52 billion to $56 billion. To put it into perspective, Intel’s 2025 total revenue is $52.9 billion.
TSMC focuses on one thing only: semiconductor manufacturing, while its customers such as Nvidia, Apple, AMD, Qualcomm, MediaTek, Broadcom, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, etc. handle product design, sales, and marketing.
On the other hand, Intel spreads its resources across semiconductor design, manufacturing, sales, and marketing. With Intel’s shrinking revenue and strained financial strength, can Intel stay on the IDM business model that has stretched the company in too many directions any longer?
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On the other hand, Intel spreads its resources across semiconductor design, manufacturing, sales, and marketing. With Intel’s shrinking revenue and strained financial strength, can Intel stay on the IDM business model that has stretched the company in too many directions any longer?
My feeling is that INTEL will stay together with Products&Foundry for US national security reasons for at least a decade if not longer. All the US Chips Act support and the10% shares have been tied to IF staying part of Intel. All this support is for IF, not for Products.
IF needs all the financial engineering possible to survive ramping of 14A during 2028/2029, moving cash from Products is one of them.
The US government is using all the knobs it has to have the hyperscalers move orders to made-in-USA fabs, like IF, but the US-governemnt knows it needs the capacity and knowledge of TSMC for at least the next decade. And with the super growth of TSMC the coming years probably much longer.
I think the split-Intel discussion is really for the history books.
What we can learn from past and current events is that everything in the semiconductor industry, including policies and regulations, is negotiable and subject to change.
I hope not. I hope Intel keeps the option and the discussion open. Otherwise, Intel risks turning its name into a past‑tense entry in the history books.
The US government is using all the knobs it has to have the hyperscalers move orders to made-in-USA fabs, like IF, but the US-governemnt knows it needs the capacity and knowledge of TSMC for at least the next decade. And with the super growth of TSMC the coming years probably much longer.
Government support is important, but it’s not enough to fix the fundamental issues Intel is facing.
For example, the U.S. government’s 10% equity investment (totaling $8.9 billion) was converted from CHIPS Act grants. But when you compare this one‑time $8.9 billion cash infusion (along with Nvidia’s $5 billion and SoftBank’s $2 billion investments in Intel) to TSMC’s massive CapEx - $40.9 billion in 2024 and an expected $52 billion to $56 billion in 2026 - it’s hard to see much hope for Intel Foundry in this foundry race.
