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If it succeeds in taking industry process leadership, which is not impossible because it is trying to run a process with more advanced features than the production processes TSMC will be running next year, then people will want to use it.
If people want to use that process, then Intel will need its fabs to run it. Not only that, it will need new fabs capable of running that process, and subsequent processes, such as in Ohio and Magdeburg.
If customers want to use that process, then not only will Intel’s fab stable become a lucrative source of foundry revenues, but its proprietary products will out-perform the competition without having to incur the foundry margin.
So it seems to be a strange time for Intel to be talking of divesting its fabs – if indeed it is. It would be stranger still if the USA acquiesced in not having a leading edge domestic capability in so important a technology – and Intel is the only company which can deliver that.
For many years Intel ruled the industry by out-innovating its competitors in process technology and, if it can get that new process yielding and ramped to volume, it will do it again.
So who’s going to buy it ? The oil countries got burnt enough with GF to know not to get involved.
Which only leaves China 🙂
“China” … LOL
That is a whole lot of ifs …
We are still waiting for a competitive AI chip or GPU for that matter. Lots of big marketing words on those fronts, but no sales to speak of, so the market appears to call that all BS.
If you think about it, Intel is the largest supplier of GPUs – almost every laptop and low-end desktop uses the ones built into the Intel CPU. Agree they’re not that good, but the market has decided they are good enough.
As for AI, I think that horse has bolted. They really should have bought nVidia when they could have afforded to do so.
I agree hey are the largest supplier, and yet they felt the need to design the Arc GPU, no doubt at great expense, which is what I was referring to. If it was going well they would be taking markt share from AMD and nVidia.