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Intel approaches TSMC for investments or partnership, WSJ reports

Daniel Nenni

Daniel Nenni

Admin
Staff member
TSMC Invests in Intel.jpg


(Reuters) -Chipmaker Intel has approached Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company about investments in manufacturing or partnerships, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The development follows a Bloomberg report on Wednesday that said Intel was in talks with Apple about securing an investment in the struggling chipmaker.

Intel's efforts to get outside investment began before U.S. President Donald Trump showed an interest in the company last month, WSJ said, but have gone into overdrive since the U.S. took a 10% stake in it.

Both Intel and TSMC declined to comment on the report.

Last week, Nvidia announced it would invest $5 billion in Intel for a roughly 4% stake in the company.

The chipmaker also got a $2 billion capital injection from SoftBank Group in August.

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan has been trying to bring in partners as part of a turnaround at the ailing chipmaker.

Once the chip industry's flag bearer that claimed to put the "silicon" in Silicon Valley, Intel has struggled to compete in the booming AI race, falling behind peers such as Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices.

Intel has invested billions of dollars in setting up a contract manufacturing business that has struggled to compete with TSMC and barely attracted external customers.

The two companies had discussed a preliminary agreement to form a joint venture, with TSMC taking a 20% stake in the new company, the Information had reported in April.

 

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Hopefully TSMC invests. That would be great! Go Lip-Bu! As I said, there will be more investments.

semiwiki.com

Yes Intel Should Go Private - Semiwiki

Lip-Bu Tan started as Intel CEO on March 18th of this year and some very impressive changes have already taken place. Intel started the year with more than 100,000 employees and will finish the year with around 75,000. Reporting structures have been flattened and the Intel culture is being...
semiwiki.com semiwiki.com

www.bloomberg.com

Intel Is Seeking an Investment From Apple as Part of Its Comeback Bid

Intel Corp. has approached Apple Inc. about securing an investment in the ailing chipmaker, according to people familiar with the matter, part of efforts to bolster a business that’s now partially owned by the US government.
www.bloomberg.com www.bloomberg.com
 
Daniel Nenni said:
Hopefully TSMC invests. That would be great! Go Lip-Bu! As I said, there will be more investments.

semiwiki.com

Yes Intel Should Go Private - Semiwiki

Lip-Bu Tan started as Intel CEO on March 18th of this year and some very impressive changes have already taken place. Intel started the year with more than 100,000 employees and will finish the year with around 75,000. Reporting structures have been flattened and the Intel culture is being...
semiwiki.com semiwiki.com

www.bloomberg.com

Intel Is Seeking an Investment From Apple as Part of Its Comeback Bid

Intel Corp. has approached Apple Inc. about securing an investment in the ailing chipmaker, according to people familiar with the matter, part of efforts to bolster a business that’s now partially owned by the US government.
www.bloomberg.com www.bloomberg.com
Click to expand...
Why would it be in TSMC’s interest to invest in a competitor? If I were TSMC, I would tell Intel to politely pound sand unless if they agree to divest or shut down the fabs.
 
osnium said:
Why would it be in TSMC’s interest to invest in a competitor? If I were TSMC, I would tell Intel to politely pound sand unless if they agree to divest or shut down the fabs.
Click to expand...

Intel is a big TSMC customer and it would please the administration who has a 10% stake plus it is an investment, not a gift. Not unlike the Nvidia investment. I think it would be a smart move. And remember, CC Wei is close friends with Jensen Huang.
 
osnium said:
Why would it be in TSMC’s interest to invest in a competitor? If I were TSMC, I would tell Intel to politely pound sand unless if they agree to divest or shut down the fabs.
Click to expand...
Give TSMC and its US customers like Apple, Nvidia, Broadcom, Qualcomm, Intel and others an exemption on the incoming tariff on all advanced node chips!

There is no way TSMC can scale to meet local manufacturing of advanced chips.

Fab21 is what 20k month compared to > 100k / month out of Fab18 and four years later. The same for N3, N2 and so on.
 
Daniel Nenni said:
Intel is a big TSMC customer and it would please the administration who has a 10% stake plus it is an investment, not a gift. Not unlike the Nvidia investment. I think it would be a smart move.
Click to expand...
Mostly to please the administration. For them, investment is better than forming a JV or running some operations for Intel.
 
osnium said:
Why would it be in TSMC’s interest to invest in a competitor? If I were TSMC, I would tell Intel to politely pound sand unless if they agree to divest or shut down the fabs.
Click to expand...
The investment could pay off for TSMC, like Microsoft's investment in Apple when Steve Jobs return. Microsoft's development of IE and Office for Mac (market shares and sales), and subsequent sale of its Apple shares, proved to be profitable. Maybe TSMC can put some conditions in the deal for Intel.
 
ai268 said:
TSMC to Intel : "You can bring your business to Samsung. Good luck".
Click to expand...

Once TSMC invests with cash in INTEL, this Trump Government will probably come back every 12 months to TSMC and squeeze them out for more investments in INTEL, typically 15%.

So, 15% of TSMC's annual capital investments of presently 35-40 B$ would give Trump&Co a reason to ask every year a 5 B$ fee from TSMC for additional investments to keep INTEL's Foundry afloat.

Especially entities from militarily dependent small countries like Taiwan. That's always the strategy of this US Government, once you bend on your knee and kiss the ring of the King ......ask all those that preceeded you in his coercion ritual .....And of course he uses LBT to do the hard work, LBT bent his knee on the threat of being fired=prosecuted by Trump, via senator Scott:

Scott, who was Governor of Florida for eight years, likened the transactional nature of the deal between the Donald Trump administration and the beleaguered tech company to economic development deals when he was in Tallahassee.
“I said, I will help you, but it’s tied to how much do you pay, how many jobs you create? Do you keep those jobs? That’s what we should be doing,” Scott advised.
https://floridapolitics.com/archives/754992-rick-scott-backs-donald-trumps-intel-play/

Become invisable to the madman's strategy and his palls' "strategic uncertainty":
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czxww2kez0go

The power of Trust is a tool totally erased from the tool-kit of this Trump administration, and Trust is the tool of choice for the Mission of TSMC. Hard to square this Mission circle of respected Morris Chang and CC Wei, with Trump&Co's coercion Mission. CC Wei would squander his company's Mission giving in to LBT's begging tour these months:

https://www.tsmc.com/english/aboutTSMC/mission
Our mission is to be the trusted technology and capacity provider of the global logic IC industry for years to come.
 
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Taipei, Sept. 26 (CNA) Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) reiterated Friday that the company has not entered discussions with any company about potential investments or partnerships amid ongoing rumors of ailing Intel seeking TSMC's participation.

In a statement, TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker, dismissed a report by the Wall Street Journal saying that Intel had approached TSMC soliciting investment in Intel's manufacturing operations or a partnership.

The company said it has never entered into talks with any company on establishing a joint venture or engaging in the licensing or transfer of technology.

That stance was similar to previous statements made by TSMC Chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) on several occasions when asked for comment on a potential partnership with Intel.

Rumors about TSMC's possible acquisition of a stake in Intel have been circulating for months.

After the Wall Street Journal report surfaced, TSMC's American depositary receipts (ADRs) fell 1.44 percent in the United States overnight, caused by fears that the Taiwanese chipmaker could lose the trust of its clients and see a fall in orders if it were to work with Intel, analysts said.

TSMC's investments in Intel could help the American company improve its technology, which would create a stronger competitor for TSMC, while a partnership could result in technology leaks from the Taiwan side, analysts said.

Intel, which has been unable to keep up with TSMC on semiconductor manufacturing technologies, has secured investment from the U.S. government, Japan's SoftBank Group and California-headquartered Nvidia Inc. to support Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan's bid to turn around the ailing chipmaker.

After the U.S. government took a 10 percent stake in Intel, the American chipmaker got US$2 billion in investment from Softbank in August and then a US$5 billion pledge last week from Nvidia.

focustaiwan.tw

No discussions on investments or partnerships: TSMC - Focus Taiwan

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) reiterated Friday that the company has not entered discussions with any company about potential investments or partnerships amid ongoing rumors of ailing Intel seeking TSMC's participation.
focustaiwan.tw focustaiwan.tw
 
And let the USA based companies like Microsoft, Apple, Broadcom, Meta, Google etc further help to solve INTEL's cash/investment problems of its leading edge Foundry, now that Wall Street (the former palls of HL and SB) has decided that cash investments in INTEL's Foundry is currently perhaps not the best bet (with their managed society's rents) providing the WS-bankers their largest end-of-year bonusses in 2025.

As Trump&Co always say, America first, with cash investments in INTEL :ROFLMAO: (and not Taiwan, or Europe, or India, or....)
 
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Daniel Nenni said:
The two companies had discussed a preliminary agreement to form a joint venture, with TSMC taking a 20% stake in the new company, the Information had reported in April.
Click to expand...
@Daniel Nenni

Cheers! Thanks indeed for your best sharing that confirmed my post at https://semiwiki.com/forum/threads/...tel-sending-shares-climbing.23412/#post-90374

"Economic Daily Taipei report, August 11, 2025: tSMC shall hold a board meeting this week at its 2nm production site in Southern Science Park of Taiwan. The industry is paying attention to the follow-up of a) the 2nm leak case, b) US tariff and c) investment in US plant (seems to be a new one "ASMC"), and the rumor said that Intel's (US admin's) invitation to acquire a stake has resurfaced to see if it will come true. ...

CHIPS act and $$$ alone won't help Intel/IFS. From my perspective, the KSF ought to be customer base, attracting talent, and 1st-tier technology know-how beyond 18A or 14A. These will be critical for the survival and growth of a new foundry player in the US (e.g. ASMC)."
 
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Fred Chen said:
focustaiwan.tw

No discussions on investments or partnerships: TSMC - Focus Taiwan

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) reiterated Friday that the company has not entered discussions with any company about potential investments or partnerships amid ongoing rumors of ailing Intel seeking TSMC's participation.
focustaiwan.tw focustaiwan.tw
Click to expand...

"In a statement, TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker, dismissed a report by the Wall Street Journal saying that Intel had approached TSMC soliciting investment in Intel's manufacturing operations or a partnership. The company said it has never entered into talks with any company on establishing a joint venture or engaging in the licensing or transfer of technology."

I do not believe this covers TSMC buying Intel stock like Nvidia did. The previous rumor, which SemiWiki denounced from the start, was that TSMC was taking over Intel manufacturing etc... which clearly did not happen.

I think TSMC buying Intel stock would be a great investment and would appease customers and the current administration even more. I remember when TSMC, Samsung, and Intel bought ASML stock in 2012. Intel took a 15% stake followed by Samsung at 3% and TSMC at 5%. They made billions on it, absolutely.
 
Ya Ha, you’re right to be skeptical. Amid the tariff war with US government, CNA’s coverage often comes across to protecting as favorable toward the "ruling" party. For instance, their Sept. 26 piece quotes TSMC: “has not entered (at this moment) discussions with any company about potential investments or partnerships,” a hedged formulation that can shape public perception to back TSMC shares. It’s worth watching how the story develops. Let's wait and see.
 
Daniel Nenni said:
I think TSMC buying Intel stock would be a great investment and would appease customers and the current administration even more. I remember when TSMC, Samsung, and Intel bought ASML stock in 2012. Intel took a 15% stake followed by Samsung at 3% and TSMC at 5%. They made billions on it, absolutely.
Click to expand...
ASML was a completely different case, I think. The logic semi industry had choosen the EUV path and wanted 18 inch wafers for cost effectiveness. There was only a single company seriously able and willing to implement EUV, but they needed their future customers to help finance this and commit with investmensts to support the heavy costs of the EUV R&D. And ASML didn't want to get sucked into doing EUV and 18 inch R&D at the same time:
https://community.cadence.com/cadence_blogs_8/b/breakfast-bytes/posts/450mm-wafers

TSMC is not an investment company, if US customers want INTEL's Foundry to survive they are happy to finance its Foundry.

It is impossible to please a coercive and ideologically motivated administration, it just corrupts the pleaser. Appeasment is definitely not CC Wei's strategy is my impression.....
 
user nl said:
ASML was a completely different case, I think. The logic semi industry had choosen the EUV path and wanted 18 inch wafers for cost effectiveness. There was only a single company seriously able and willing to implement EUV, but they needed their future customers to help finance this and commit with investmensts to support the heavy costs of the EUV R&D. And ASML didn't want to get sucked into doing EUV and 18 inch R&D at the same time:
https://community.cadence.com/cadence_blogs_8/b/breakfast-bytes/posts/450mm-wafers

TSMC is not an investment company, if US customers want INTEL's Foundry to survive they are happy to finance its Foundry.

It is impossible to please a coercive and ideologically motivated administration, it just corrupts the pleaser. Appeasment is definitely not CC Wei's strategy is my impression.....
Click to expand...

450mm Archives

semiwiki.com semiwiki.com
 
Japanese firms cross-holdings and cross-investing is part of what caused the lost decades from 1990 to the present (30+ y ears). We're repeating their mistake, failing to learn. We don't want American keiretsu.

AI Overview
The Japanese term for a group of companies with cross-investment holdings is
keiretsu. The cross-shareholding practice itself is known as kabushiki mochiai (株式持ち合い), or "mutual aid shareholding".
 
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