Given the year Intel's had, it wasn't the biggest surprise when there started to be talk of the company selling off its manufacturing division or even the whole shebang. It was, however, a little surprising when there were reports that TSMC was proposing joining with Nvidia, AMD, and Broadcom to run Intel's chip fabs.
It must have certainly been surprising to Jensen Huang, too, as Reuters now reports the Nvidia CEO clearly states he's not been asked to pick up a piece of Intel.
Answering a question about it at GTC 2025, Huang reportedly says: "Nobody's invited us to a consortium… Nobody invited me. Maybe other people are involved, but I don't know. There might be a party. I wasn't invited."
The original rumour was that TSMC had pitched the other three companies about "taking stakes in a joint venture" to run Intel's factories, which had come from "four sources familiar with the matter." It now seems that these sources may have been incorrect, at least as far as Nvidia is concerned. Though perhaps there was a party where Huang wasn't invited—who knows?
The idea that Intel might sell off the fabrication side of the business isn't completely far-fetched. While Lip-Bu Tan is now CEO of Intel at large, Michelle Johnston Holthaus is still CEO of the Products side of the business, reminding us there's still a very real split down the centre.
It's arguably the fabrication side of the business that's been struggling the most. After all, Intel had to ask TSMC to make a large portion of its very own Arrow Lake chips after seemingly killing off 20A. And let's not forget the chip stability issues and $18.8 billion worth of losses in 2024.
In addition to Tan's leadership, hopes now rest—as ex-Intel CEO Gelsinger admitted they did over a year ago—with the 18A process, which looks like it might now actually be churning out chips. And if the stock market's anything to go by, there seems to be plenty of confidence in Tan taking over the reins.
So a fabrication spin-off might not be on the cards after all, though only time will tell. Opinion is divided on whether that would be a good or bad thing—Jim Keller, for instance, called a potential Intel chip and fab spin-off a "fire sale."
All eyes will be on Tan and Intel over the coming months (or maybe years) to see just whether it will occur. And, if so, whether Nvidia will be invited to the party.
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