Trump won’t support Intel’s US factory run by foreign companies – White House official
Arsheeya Bajwa
(Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s administration is likely not to support Intel’s US chip factory run by foreign organizations, White House officials told Reuters.
The comments come after Bloomberg reported that Taiwan’s TSMC, the world’s largest chipmaker, is considering controlling the stock at Intel’s factory in response to Trump’s demands.
White House officials said the Trump administration supports foreign companies that invest in and build the US, but it is “impossible” to support foreign companies that run Intel’s factories.
Previously, Bloomberg reported that Trump’s team had raised the idea of a deal between the two companies at a recent meeting with TSMC officials, but they accepted by citing people who were familiar with the issue. It was there.
The consultation is very early on, and the exact structure of potential partnerships has not been established. However, the expected results are that TSMC will fully operate Intel’s US semiconductor factory, Bloomberg reported.
Such a transaction could throw a financial lifeline at Intel. This was struggling to restore the glory of lost chipmaking as it harnessed the AI boom and poured billions of dollars into becoming a contract chipmaker.
Intel shares closed 2.2% on Friday, with TSMC’s US listed stock closing at around 1%.
“By combining TSMC expertise and engineers with Intel’s infrastructure, starting President Trump’s dream of making the US a central part of the chip universe, says Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annexwells Management. .
However, such transactions require deep concessions on both sides.
If TSMC accepts an arrangement to operate Intel’s factories, it will require significant changes to the operation of US chip manufacturers, as each chip manufacturer has different methods and techniques to operate the factory.
To operate Intel fabs, TSMC will also need to reveal some of its secret techniques and processes to Intel employees.
On that side, Intel must admit that its manufacturing operations become a completely different entity.
Similarly, TSMC, known as FABS, operates fully Intel’s factory known as FABS. It also raises questions about Intel’s key strategy of manufacturing chips that it has designed. Most chip makers are “Fabless” and outsource to TSMC and others.
“As Intel goes this path, we’ll focus on being a semiconductor design company. So it looks like Broadcom, Marvell or AMD,” said Matthew Bryson, a Wedbush Securities analyst.