Intel and CEO Pat Gelsinger’s plans to dominate the foundry business continue to experience headwinds, with the company losing $7 billion in 2023 on the effort.
Intel has been struggling to recapture its crown as the world’s leading semiconductor manufacturer, a title it long-since lost to TSMC. As part of the company’s plans, Intel has been building foundries around the world and wooing customers. Unfortunately, the company’s ambitions haven’t completely paid off, with it failing to secure Qualcomm and Tesla as customers. In both cases, the company missed out because of technical missteps or because it couldn’t match the services competing foundries could provide.
At the time, Gelsinger chalked up Intel’s challenges to an issue of culture:
“Foundry is a service business,” Gelsinger reportedly said in an interview. “That isn’t the culture that Intel’s had.”
Intel’s troubles seem to be far from over, with Reuters reporting $7 billion in losses for its foundry business in 2023, up from the $5.2 billion it lost in 2022.
Gelsinger said Intel was still paying for bad decisions, including some from years ago, such as passing up the opportunity to secure semiconductor manufacturing machines from Dutch company ASML.
Only time will tell if Intel can turn around its efforts.