TSMC's former co-chief operating officer, Chiang Shang-yi, didn't hold back when talking about Intel's chip manufacturing woes at an event in Taiwan. Chiang served at TSMC until 2013, and he is one of the firm's core team members who helped establish it as a global contract chip manufacturing powerhouse. Chiang, along with the dean of Taiwan's National Tsing Hua University, spoke at a book launch in Taiwan yesterday where the former TSMC executive advised Intel to move into mature chip manufacturing processes to win as it was too far behind TSMC to catch up. Chiang added that while Intel was formerly a "king" of the chip industry, it was now a "nobody."
Intel's Too Far Behind TSMC To Catch Up, Believes TSMC Industry Veteran
With Intel's new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, settling into his role, the firm has two primary objectives. The first is to establish regular production of its 18A chip manufacturing node, and the second is to set up a robust foundry business. Both of these are aimed at competing with TSMC. Should Intel execute with the former, then it will have achieved manufacturing node parity with TSMC, which also plans to place the comparable 2-nanometer process into production this year.
However, while Intel might try its hand at yet another turnaround attempt, TSMC's former co-COO Chiang Shang-yi believes that the firm would be better suited at focusing on mature manufacturing process nodes. At a book launch in Taiwan yesterday, the chip industry veteran shared that TSMC has its advantages that will prove to be difficult to meet or overcome. As a result, he believes that Intel should acquire a mature manufacturing process plant.
Shangyi recalled his time at TSMC, Intel was leading the global chip manufacturing technology race while TSMC had to aggressively cut costs in order to compete with the US chip manufacturing giant. He added that instead of competing with TSMC on the high-end nodes, Intel should merge with a company that does not produce leading-edge chips but instead churns out mature process chips in large volumes.
The former TSMC executive didn't hold his words back when commenting about Intel. He recalled that while Intel was at one time a "king" of the chip industry, it is now a "nobody." As for advising Intel to merge with a mature chip-making company, Shangyi commented that there are two such firms. While he did not take any names, Taiwan's UMC (the second biggest contract chip manufacturer on the island) and America GlobalFoundries are two firms that make mature chips in large volumes.
As for TSMC, he believes that the firm's biggest advantage lies in its hundreds of customers. In order to serve the voluminous customer base, TSMC has established high output and quick manufacturing speeds, which are its key competitive advantages, according to the former executive.
Shangyi also attributed TSMC's global dominance and success over UMC to the firm's focus on research. He remarked that while UMC worked with IBM for research purposes, his former firm self-developed the capabilities. He recalled that during his tenure, he worked hard to overcome Intel's dominance and his happy after witnessing TSMC doing so.
