Advanced Packaging Customers in the U.S., Led by Its Newly Hired Ex-TSMC Executive

It appears that the advanced packaging services are starting to emerge as a ‘massive prospect’ for Intel Foundry, as they manage to receive attention from several US customers who have placed chip orders at TSMC Arizona.

TSMC Arizona Customers Are Looking Towards Intel For Advanced Packaging Services, Opening Up a New Prospect for the IFS

For those unaware, the US is pursuing an independent supply chain, which involves setting up all stages of manufacturing, including semiconductor R&D, volume manufacturing, and advanced packaging. The nation has been successful in producing processes onshore; however, it currently has few options for packaging. It would not be incorrect to say that, among all competitors in the US chip industry, Intel has the widest and most advanced packaging portfolio, which is why DigiTimes reports that the firm is attracting attention from Microsoft, Tesla, Qualcomm, and NVIDIA.

The report actually delves into one of the reasons why Intel has been pushing to hire TSMC’s former executive, Dr. Wei-Jen Lo. When it comes to US fabless firms, they are currently inclined to source semiconductors from TSMC’s Arizona facility, and later utilize Intel Foundry or even Amkor for the final packaging stages. In this particular supply chain setting, Intel’s role will evolve as a ‘packaging foundry’ until the firm develops a robust ‘external foundry’ environment, which means that, in the short term, Intel has opened up a new revenue front for its foundry division.

TSMC’s Dr. Wei-Jen Lo is well-accustomed to what US customers demand in terms of advanced packaging; hence, his hiring would eventually enable Intel to provide packaging technology on par with what is expected from the Taiwan giant. All US customers of TSMC Arizona, including NVIDIA, AMD, and Apple, would eventually come under the scope of Intel for packaging services, ultimately allowing the IFS to attract external interest and, hopefully, paving the way for semiconductor adoption in the longer run.

We did discuss Qualcomm and Apple hiring talent for expertise in Intel’s EMIB and Foveros packaging technologies, and it appears that the interest is defintely there. Currently, companies like NVIDIA are required to ship the wafers produced in Arizona to Taiwan for packaging, which adds overhead in the form of higher costs and a significantly longer time to achieve the end product. With Intel stepping in, companies will have access to semiconductor and advanced packaging services right in Arizona.

This is one of the ways Intel and TSMC are expected to partner in the US, as it’s a situation that benefits both companies involved. The Taiwan chip giant is bringing advanced packaging facilities to America, but this is a multi-year process, which is why the firm is partnering with companies like Intel and Amkor to ensure that US customers have a robust onshore supply chain.

Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.

https://wccftech.com/intel-is-reported-to-secure-microsoft-tesla-qualcomm-nvidia-as-advanced-packaging-customers/amp/