Samsung is going to fab 14nm CPUs for Intel, to address shortage

Intel would be in an agreement with Samsung for the production of processors on its 14nm process. There are two major causes for Intel's CPU shortage. On the one hand, the 10nm process is problematic to say the least , as a result of which more and more products are stuck at 14 nm that would originally be produced at 10 nm.

According to the semiconductor industry on the 17th, the Samsung foundry division plans to mass-produce Intel's products in the third and fourth quarter of next year at the 14-nanometer process. It is estimated that Intel's 14-nano PC CPU 'Rocket Lake' will be released in 2021. An official familiar with the internal situation said, "We know that the contract negotiations with Intel, which was only rumored, are in the final stages." Intel, which has its own fab and intends to pursue vertical integration, is the first to leave CPU production outside of some low-end products.

 

This is closely related to the situation in which Intel has suffered from the CPU supply shortage since the second half of last year. With the delays in process refinement, Intel's new products, which had been planned to be made into 10-nm process last year, were packed with 14-nano production lines. Although Intel was late in securing new production lines, it would take years to build the factory, which would have been an inevitable choice. The Samsung Foundry division has been chasing down TSMC's chin as it succeeded in winning new orders this year. Samsung Foundry, which received IBM's server CPU supply contract last year, recently secured NVIDIA's next-generation graphics processing unit (GPU) and Qualcomm's next-generation application processor (AP). In addition to Apple and Hai Silicon (Huawei), the majority of semiconductor design companies that use state-of-the-art processes have become customers.