Intel's new CEO, Pat Gelsinger, has revealed plans to invest €20 billion in two new chip manufacturing plants as he seeks to revive the company's fortunes. Gelsinger shared plans for new manufacturing units in Arizona during an annual webcast announcing what he called his vision for IDM 2.0, a revamped version of Intel's embedded device manufacturing (IDM) model. "Intel is the only company with the depth and breadth of software, silicon and platforms, packaging and processes that large-scale manufacturing customers can rely on for their next-generation innovations," said Gelsinger. Gelsinger shared screen time with Arizona Governor Doug Ducey and US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo as he announced plans to create the new manufacturing units that will create several thousand jobs.
Three-pronged approach
While Gelsinger reaffirmed that Intel will continue to manufacture most of its products in-house, he also stressed the importance of expanding its collaboration with third-party foundries, both for the customer and data center segments. The biggest announcement, however, is the establishment of a new Intel Foundry Services division, which will boost Intel's efforts to make chips for other commercial customers. Gelsinger said the new division will develop x86, Arm and RISC-V core chips for external customers. The new foundries will be located in the United States and Europe. Intel has reportedly already partnered with IBM, Qualcomm, Microsoft, Google and others. Google's inclusion is interesting because the search giant recently announced its own systems-on-chip (SoC)-based strategy for developing its cloud computing infrastructure. Gelsinger's IDM 2.0 strategy is reaching what may be a tipping point for the semiconductor industry. With Arm and AMD entering the server segment once dominated by Intel, the new strategy may be just the push the company needs to turn things around. Via: The Verge