Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger's Vision for Intel Foundry Services

During the Intel Foundry Services (IFS) Direct Connect event, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger expressed his ambition to transform IFS into the leading foundry company in the West, directly competing with TSMC in terms of technology and volume. He emphasized the distinction between Intel Products and Intel Foundry, stating that IFS will soon operate as a separate legal entity from Intel. Gelsinger believes that for IFS to compete with TSMC, it must offer its most advanced semiconductor manufacturing nodes and 3D chip packaging innovations to external foundry customers, even if they are competitors like AMD and Qualcomm.

When asked about potential conflicts arising from providing technology to competitors, Gelsinger highlighted the separation between Intel products and Intel foundry. He emphasized the goal of IFS to serve a wide range of customers, including competitors like NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Google, Microsoft, and AMD. Gelsinger's vision is for IFS to be a global foundry that provides cutting-edge technologies to all customers, regardless of competition.

In addition to opening up IFS technology to third-party customers, Intel's medium-term objective is to enter the semi-custom chip business. Gelsinger envisions creating Foveros-based semi-custom chips that combine Intel Compute tiles with IA cores, SoC tiles designed by partners like Microsoft and graphics tiles from NVIDIA. This approach would allow Intel and IFS to offer a one-stop solution for customers seeking customized chip designs with a mix of different intellectual properties.