Intel Wants to Regain its Semiconductor Dominance



Intel to Churn Out New CPUs

Intel (INTC) wants to regain its position as the world’s top semiconductor manufacturer. Currently, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM) and Samsung Electronics are ahead of Intel in semiconductor manufacturing. Intel has vowed to churn out more powerful central processing units, also known as CPUs, every year for the next four years. The chip maker’s goal is to be in first place in terms of processor performance by the end of 2025. Intel plans to roll out a new desktop CPU in 2021 and a server CPU in early 2022.

By committing to producing faster chips every year, Intel is signaling that it believes there is more room for chip advancements, even though creating improved chips is becoming more expensive and more technically difficult.

Intel to Release New Chips

By 2023, Intel plans to release a new series of PC and server CPUs manufactured with extreme ultraviolet lithography, a new circuit-printing method. This technique enables the production of very tiny transistors. Billions of transistors are required to enable computation in desktops, laptops, and servers. By 2025, Intel aims to roll out powerful semiconductors which use transistor technology called Intel 18A.

Intel is confident it will meet its performance goals, pointing to its adoption of extreme ultraviolet technology to streamline the chip-manufacturing process and its willingness to look for outside help to advance innovation. But Intel is not the only chipmaker working on advanced semiconductors—TSMC is also building chips with very small transistors.

Chip Making for All

In addition to rolling out speedy CPUs, Intel is aiming to regain market share lost to the likes of Nvidia (NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). To achieve this, the company wants to become a leading manufacturer of chips for other companies. It is investing billions of dollars in the initiative and is in talks to acquire GlobalFoundries, a chip-making specialist. Intel already counts Qualcomm (QCOM) as a customer, a company which has been a big client of TSMC and Samsung in the past.

Intel dominated the semiconductor market for years. Even today, it is still the leader of the pack based on sales. But its market cap is below that of its competitors, and Intel wants this to change. It will be interesting to see if Intel’s new chips help it regain its position in a complex industry.

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ABOUT Meg Richardson Meg Richardson is a writer specializing in markets, technology, and personal finance. She loves breaking down seemingly complex ideas and making them readable and interesting for everyone. She holds an MFA in writing from Columbia University. When she is not writing about finance, she enjoys running in Central Park and drawing cartoons.


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