Intel Foundry Services is making a play for Arm business, collaborating with the UK chip firm to manufacture the chips it designs.
Intel has been working to regain its technological advantage after years of seeing AMD, TSMC, and others surpass it. As part of its goal, the company has been rapidly expanding its manufacturing capabilities, not just to design its own chips but also to provide foundry services to other companies.
To further its plans, Intel has struck a collaborative agreement with Arm, laying the groundwork for Intel to manufacture the Arm-based chips that currently power the majority of smartphones and tablets, as well as a growing number of computers.
“There is growing demand for computing power driven by the digitization of everything, but until now fabless customers have had limited options for designing around the most advanced mobile technology,” said Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel Corporation. “Intel’s collaboration with Arm will expand the market opportunity for IFS and open up new options and approaches for any fabless company that wants to access best-in-class CPU IP and the power of an open system foundry with leading-edge process technology.”
“Arm’s secure, energy-efficient processors are at the heart of hundreds of billions of devices and the planet’s digital experiences,” said Rene Haas, CEO of Arm. “As the demands for compute and efficiency become increasingly complex, our industry must innovate on many new levels. Arm’s collaboration with Intel enables IFS as a critical foundry partner for our customers as we deliver the next generation of world-changing products built on Arm.”
In many ways, a collaboration between Arm and Intel makes a lot of sense. While Arm is one of the most innovative chip designers, it does not manufacture any of the chips it designs. Instead, companies license Arm’s designs, relying on other companies to manufacture the resulting chips.
TSMC has long been the leading manufacturer companies rely on to create their Arm-based chips, but tensions between China and Taiwan have raised concerns regarding the long-term viability of continued reliance on TSMC. Gelsinger has also voiced his belief that the semiconductor industry must rebalance amid growing tension between China and the West.
Intel clearly sees an opportunity to position itself as an alternative to TSMC, providing manufacturing services that provide more stability and long-term reliability.
