TSMC rebuffs Intel fab acquisition rumors

TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker, has firmly dismissed any talk about buying up Intel’s manufacturing plants. This announcement comes while Intel’s foundry business is struggling to reel in customers, putting a spotlight on CEO Pat Gelsinger’s IDM 2.0 strategy and whether it will work.

In a recent earnings call, TSMC’s CEO, C.C. Wei, made things crystal clear, saying, “Are we interested to acquire one of IDM’s fabs? The answer is no, OK? No, not at all.” That blunt reply puts a lid on rumors swirling about who might scoop up Intel’s fabs if they decide to offload their manufacturing side.

The speculation around Intel's fabs comes from several factors. For starters, there’s the money side of things. Intel’s massive manufacturing setup would need a whole lot of cash to take over, and even TSMC, with all its resources, would think twice. Then there’s the technological issue. Intel’s fabs are custom-built for their own products and processes, so getting them ready for third-party use would be a complicated and expensive mess.

The way the two companies operate also adds to TSMC’s lack of interest. TSMC runs a lean corporate structure, which doesn’t sit well with Intel’s style of tackling huge projects and diving deep into fundamental research. On top of that, any big move like this would probably hit some serious resistance from antitrust regulators and could stir up geopolitical tensions too.

But maybe the biggest reason for TSMC’s disinterest is a clash in how they do business. TSMC is all about being a pure-play foundry, while Intel goes the IDM route, handling both design and manufacturing in-house. Those two approaches just don’t line up, making the idea of TSMC snapping up Intel’s fabs pretty much a no-go.