Intel

Intel has gone from mastering the world to being a forced partner of the United States. They are bad news for Europe

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Intel has just sold 10% of your company to the United States government for 8,900 million dollars. The operation confirms what many suspected: the most iconic chips manufacturer in the world can no longer survive without state help. The panoramic. For three decades, the ‘Intel Inside’ stickers glued to millions of computers symbolized US domain in semiconductors. Intel and Microsoft created The era “wintel” that defined personal computing. In 2009, the Obama administration even presented antitrust charges against Intel for its dominant position. Today, the company is worth 108,000 million dollars while Nvidia, its former subordinated, reaches 4.3 billion. What has happened. Last Friday, Donald Trump announced that the United States acquired 10% Intel in exchange for promised funds under the CHIPS ACT They never arrived. It is not technically a rescue, but it looks a lot. Trump sold it as a big business: “I paid zero for Intel, it is worth approximately 11,000 million dollars” (capital letters are yours). The reality is more complex: Intel had been waiting for those 8.9 billion already committed by the previous administration for months. The company desperately needed money: Its foundry division lost $ 13.4 billion last year. He has fired between 8,000 and 10,900 workers. And the most worrying: not even Intel’s own product teams want to use their factories, preferring that TSMC manufactures their chips. Why is it important. This operation marks a turning point on three critical fronts: For Intel, It means losing business autonomy. 76% of their income comes from abroad, with China representing 29%. Now each decision will be under the political scrutiny of his government. As the company itself warns in regulatory documentsthis could “cause adverse reactions of investors, employees, clients, suppliers, foreign or competitors.” For the United Statesrepresents the return of state capitalism in technology. It is the first direct government intervention in a company from the rescue of the 2008 automobile industry. Trump has already suggested that there will be more: “I will make agreements like this for our country constantly.” For Europethis is especially worrying. The European Union partially depends on Intel for its ambitions of technological sovereignty in semiconductors. If the largest Western chips becomes an instrument of American industrial policy, Europe is in an even more vulnerable position against Asia. The Trump government has already asked TSMC to help rescue Intel factories. Also He took a “golden action” in Nippon Steel and Plan to stay with part of the sales that Nvidia and AMD make to China. The message is clear: the semiconductor industry is now a national security issue. Between the lines. Intel’s fundamental problem is not solved with public money: Intel failed in smartphones when he rejected to make chips for the first iPhone. He was late to AI while Nvidia was ahead. And he lost his leadership in manufacturing against TSMC, which not only has better technology but A superior business model As a pure foundry. As pointed out Intel’s CEO himself, Lip-bu Tan, “twenty or thirty years ago we were leaders. Now the world has changed. We are not among the ten main semiconductor companies.” Its survival depends on the success of the 18A manufacturing nodehis latest technological commitment. And now what. Intel is now a company supported by the State, something that its own managers warned could scare customers. Meanwhile, Trump promises more similar agreementseven suggesting the creation of an American sovereign fund with participations in technology companies. For competitors, this creates a scenario of unfair competition: AMD, Qualcomm and other companies now compete against a rival that has the US government as the main shareholder, with all that that implies in terms of government contracts and political decisions. Senator Rand Paul He summarized it With irony: “If socialism is the Government possessing the means of production, wouldn’t the government be having part of Intel a step towards socialism?” Paradoxically, Bernie Sanders, a declared socialist, applauded the measure. Intel went from being the symbol of American technological capitalism to become his first large semi-nationalized company of the 21st century. For Europe, which struggles not to be behind the technological career, it is an alarm signal: the era of the free market in semiconductors is over. In Xataka | Intel’s fall symbolizes the end of an era: the model that dominated technology for 50 years has died Outstanding image | Xataka

The US has bought 10% of Intel to save it from burning, and that plans a huge problem. One called favoritism

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Intel has agreed to sell 10% of your company to the United States for a value of 8,900 million dollars. An interventionist measure is thus confirmed that has huge implications not only for Intel, but for the entire semiconductor industry. Above all, the American. Historical crisis. The Historical crisis that Intel is going without resolving. And his new CEO, Lip-bu Tanalready I recognized A few weeks ago, “twenty or thirty years ago we were leaders. Now the world has changed. We are not among the ten main semiconductor companies.” The mass layoffs and the decision of Bet everything to lithography 18a –No 20th node– They raised a complicated future for the company, which needs maneuvering margin. He has just obtained it, but we don’t know at what price. Or maybe yes. The agreement. According to indicate in IntelUnited States will invest 8,900 million dollars in company shares, and that adds to the 2.2 billion dollars that the US government paid to the company as part of the Chips and Science Acta federal program that was approved in 2022 and is intended to invest billions of dollars to relive the country’s semiconductor industry. Intel was too big to fall. He Moment of weakness It is still worrying, but there have been two recent “bailouts.” The first, by the Investment of 2 billion dollars of softbank In the company. The second, much more important, the one that has just signed the US government with the purchase of 10% of Intel for 8,900 million dollars. This measure is especially striking for several reasons. For a start, is the first time that the US government intervenes a company since the rescue of the car industry was produced during the 2008 crisis. But there are more implications. Potential loss of autonomy. The agreement is only economic and there will be no official representation of the US government in the Board of Directors of Intel. However, political pressure will now be seen without a doubt increased, and each business decision of Lip-Bu Tan and its team will be seen through a different prism: there is public money at stake. Desperate times, desperate measures? Another perspectives from which this agreement can be contemplated is that of despair. Accepting this governmental “rescue” can be seen as a clear indication that Intel was against the ropes and there was no escape without any movement of this type. For Lip-Bu this can represent a problem for confidence in his leadership now that he has just taken command, and in fact the American senator Tom Cotton He accused him to invest in 600 Chinese companies. President Trump He came to ask for his resignation In Truth Social and then end up meeting him and congratulating him for its management. A logical agreement for Trump’s roadmap. The US president began his mandate with the clear intention of centralize semiconductor production to the maximum and electronics products. This protectionism is closely linked to this decision, and allows to protect Intel in addition to mitigating the dependence of Taiwan and the Chips import and technology From China. The Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, Indian That the agreement is especially beneficial for the US government, pointing out that they were basically giving money to companies through subsidies, but here what the US achieves is to raise that subsidy as an investment. It is not “lost” money. It is not clear that since the money comes from the ACT chips, the US government is allowed to end up obtaining benefits of such “investment.” Favoritism. This politicization of the semiconductor business could end up causing uncomfortable alliances and distorting competition. Now that all kinds of government agencies may have much more inclination to buy Intel chips in the future, while direct competitors such as Apple, AMD, NVIDIA or Qualcomm are harmed before a landscape of government favoritism. Intel, we insist, perhaps it was too big and iconic to drop it, but this intervention raises a change in the rules of the game that affects both Intel and its national competitors and, of course, foreigners. Image | Intel | Gage Skidmore In Xataka | Intel’s plan in front of an unattainable TSMC: beat Samsung and consolidate as the second largest chips manufacturer

Intel is closer than ever to be chopped. A giant is interested in buying its chips factories

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The possibility of intelid for a long time. Two years before get out of this companyPat Gelsinger, the former Director General of Intel, He acknowledged that he saw with good eyes The possibility that the network of integrated circuit factories is somewhat broken down from the company’s matrix. At that time, More than three years agothis was already an interesting option to increase the competitiveness of its chips production plants, and in current circumstances it seems even more advantageous. At the beginning of last April Reuters and The Information assured that the Board of Directors of Intel and TSMC had reached a principle of agreement that was pursuing to constitute a joint company that would be responsible for the management of Intel semiconductor factories. Its plan was that TSMC would have a 20% participation in the new company, so presumably Intel would maintain a majority participation. Finally, this initiative did not come to fruition, but the possibility of splitting the Intel chips factories of the company’s matrix is still on the table. And now it is the Japanese investment group SoftBank who, According to Financial Timesis interested in controlling the Intel Integrated Circuit Production Infrastructure. SoftBank has something very important: the support of the US government As we explain yesterday, SoftBank has injected into Intel 2,000 million dollars, which has consolidated it as the sixth main shareholder of this company. According to Reutersthis Japanese company has promised not to participate in the Board of Directors, and it will not buy integrated circuits produced by this American chip manufacturer. However, SoftBank’s plan does not end here. And is that, According to Financial TimesMasayoshi Son, the general director of this investment group, is interested in Intel chips factories. SoftBank has promised not to participate in the Board of Directors of Intel In fact, again according to this means of communication of British origin but currently in the hands of the Japanese company Nikkei Inc., before formalizing the injection of 2,000 million dollars in Intel, SoftBank communicated to the board of directors of this company its interest in its interest in Buy the full semiconductor production subsidiary. A priori it is reasonable to anticipate that the US government would not see with good eyes that a foreign company is done with the total control of Intel chips factories, but SoftBank is not any company. The most important initiative of how many has launched the Trump administration to protect US leadership in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) is The Stargate project. And this plan is led by an American company, Openai, and another Japanese: SoftBank. The company directed by Sam Altman is responsible, in broad strokes, for the development of technology and infrastructure management. And Masayoshi’s company are responsible for financial administration. Stargate will cost no less than 500,000 million dollarsand it is evident that the US government Trust SoftBank. During the next few weeks we will check if the purchase of Intel Prosper Chips factories, but all likelihood the administration will not be an obstacle. Image | Intel More information | Financial Times In Xataka | The next revolution of the chips is approaching. Intel, Samsung, TSMC and AMD already work on glass substrates

The US will not allow Intel to fall into full confrontation with China. The government has a plan to prevent it

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Intel has just received a very important vote of trust in A moment of weakness. The Japanese Softbank investment group has just injected into this company 2,000 million dollarswhich has consolidated it as the sixth share of Intel. According to Reutersthis Japanese company has promised not to participate in the Board of Directors, and it will not buy integrated circuits produced by this American chip manufacturer. Even so, everyone wins. For SoftBank this investment is important because Intel will interpret in the future an essential role in the US semiconductor industry. “This strategic investment supports our conviction that the manufacture and supply of advanced semiconductors will expand further in the US with Intel playing a fundamental role,” has declared Masayoshi arethe CEO of SoftBank. On the other hand, these 2,000 million dollars arrive just after Intel has dispensed with Between 8,000 and 10,900 workers of its factories with the purpose of reducing their operating expenses and increasing their competitiveness. However, the company led by Lip-Bu so has something else in hand. Something very important. And is that, According to BloombergIt is negotiating with the Trump administration the possibility that the State acquires a 10% participation in Intel. The largest integrated circuit manufacturer in the United States cannot fall Most of the decisions made by the US government since Donald Trump returned to the White House On January 20, it pursues a single objective: the American semiconductor industry must be strengthened and independent. Intel is the biggest manufacturer of US chips, so allowing its fall is not an option for the government. The possibility of the State participating in Intel’s shareholders reinforces this precept, although this company has already acquired an unavoidable commitment to the administration. Intel is the largest US chips manufacturer, so allowing its fall is not an option for the government In mid -September 2024 Intel published a statement in which he anticipated that he will receive a maximum of 3,000 million dollars within the framework of the ‘Chips and Science Act’ program to manufacture in a reliable way semiconductors for the US government. The name of this plan, “Safe Enclave”, reflects one of the requirements required by the Administration: Chips must be produced in the strictest confidentiality. The Commerce Department confirmed that it was evaluating the possibility of Intel reserving a restricted area in some of its integrated circuit manufacturing plants specifically for the production of chips for defense and intelligence applications. What is not yet clear is who will take care of the expenses derived from the tuning of this “exclusion zone” within the factories. They can be borne by Intel, but this money is likely to finally come from the subsidies of the State. There is something important in which we have not yet repaired: the Defense Department is interested in using Intel’s 18th node. At the beginning of September 2024 this company confirmed that the 20A node will be skipped To reduce expenses and It will derive its resources to the 18A node. According to Ben SellVice President of Intel Technology Development, the 18A node has reached the maturity necessary to enter production in 2025 and will benefit from the resources that will be reallocated from the 20A node. Although the latter at the end will not go into large -scale production will be remembered for being the first in which Intel introduced two important innovations: transistors Ribbonfet Gate-Lall-Around (GAA) and Powervia energy delivery technology. Image | Intel More information | Reuters | Bloomberg In Xataka | Intel has confirmed that the 20A node will be skipped to reduce expenses. The 18A node will enter production in 2025

O Solve these four big problems as soon as possible or Intel will be condemned to a very dark future

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“I think it is too late for us (to achieve the position of Nvidia in the field of artificial intelligence), Although we have other opportunities in this market (…) twenty or thirty years ago we were leaders. Now the world has changed. We are not among the ten main semiconductor companies. We have to be humble. ” These words of Lip-Bu Tanthe general director of Intel, are aimed at the company’s employees in a clear attempt to expose what challenges they face. The challenges with Those who are dealing Intel They exceed the other challenges that he has faced during his more than half a century of history. The leadership that has sustained for decades in the manufacturing industry of integrated circuits is in the hands of The Taiwanese company TSMC Since the mid -2000s. In addition, the stagnation during the last years of the PC market and the slowness with which Intel has participated in the AI industry have placed it in a very compromised position. It is necessary to compete from you to compete again with AMD. Intel and AMD compete on several fronts. Three of the most important are the processors for servers and work stations, the GPUs for artificial intelligence and the CPUs for PC. The company led by Lisa supports a very solid position in these three market segments, and if we stick to CPU for PC enthusiasts During the last generations it has been very successful among users. In fact, to us your chips Ryzen 7000 and 9000 We love. In this Intel scenario you have no choice but to fight from you with AMD and recover a technological leadership that lost a long time ago. His future is in the hands of lithography 18a. Intel’s short -term competitiveness is closely linked to the success of a single semiconductor manufacturing technology: 18A photolithography. Ben Sell, Vice President of Intel Technology Development, confirmed At the end of last September that the 18A node already has the maturity necessary to enter large -scale production in 2025. and also assured that it will benefit from the resources that have been reallocated since the 20A node. In the current scenario the 18A node will be the true protagonist. That is not the slightest doubt. The 18A node already has the necessary maturity to enter large -scale production in 2025 The internal division should be left behind. The possibility that the Board of Directors of Intel decides to split the chips manufacturing subsidiary of the company’s matrix and put it in the hands of another company has triggered a deep internal division in the company. Joseph Bonetti, main manager of Intel engineering programs, expresses it in this way: “Intel leaders, Board of Directors of Intel and Donald Trump administration, please do not sell or give the control of Intel Foundry to TSMC just when Intel is taking the technological front and starting to take off. It would be a terrible and demoralizing error.” Bonetti also maintains that Intel is not lagging for its competitors, and that the advances that their engineers are achieving in the field of chips production are very important. Lip-Bu must recover government confidence. Lip-bu Tan, the general director of Intel, is in a very compromised position. Before arriving at the company that Cadence Design Systems currently led, an American company specialized in the development of software and hardware tools to design and verify integrated circuits. The problem is that just a month ago, in July, the US Department of Justice condemned her to pay a fine of more than 140 million dollars for selling commercial secrets to China. According to this US institutionCadence Design Systems delivered this critical information to the National University of Defense Technology, a Chinese teaching and research center that is supervised by the Chinese army. Lip Bu-Tan Intel leads since March 2025but there is a crucial fact that we should not overlook: although this conflict has taken it out of Cadence Design Systems directed this company between 2009 and 2021. And this was the period in which According to the US Department of Justice There were export control violations by which this company has recently been convicted. Image | Intel In Xataka | Intel has confirmed that the 20A node will be skipped to reduce expenses. The 18A node will enter production in 2025

Intel pull the towel with the chips for ia. Its general director acknowledges that Nvidia’s advantage is insurmountable

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“I think it is too late for us (to achieve the position of Nvidia in the field of artificial intelligence), Although we have other opportunities in this market (…) twenty or thirty years ago we were leaders. Now the world has changed. We are not among the ten main semiconductor companies. We have to be humble. “These words of Lip-Bu Tan, the Director General of Intel, have been collected by The Oregonian And they are aimed at company employees in a clear attempt to expose what challenges they face. The challenges with Those who are dealing Intel They exceed the other challenges that he has faced during his more than half a century of history. The leadership that has sustained for decades in the manufacturing industry of integrated circuits is in the hands of The Taiwanese company TSMC Since the mid -2000s. In addition, the stagnation during the last years of the PC market and the slowness with which Intel has participated in the AI industry have placed it in a very compromised position. In July 2024, the company that at that time led Pat Gelsinger gave a tremendous batacazo in the stock market. Their actions fell 30% in a few days and stabilized in the value they had in 2011. In addition, Intel lost $ 1.6 billion During the second quarter of 2024 and its year -on -year income fell by 1%. These circumstances triggered a crisis that still persists. Today China is a crucial support for Intel. Dram memories will be tomorrow Shortly after his arrival It was leaked that lip-bu so He planned to launch a new cut of the Intel template in a clear attempt to reduce their operating expenses, among which personnel costs or marketing expenses are counted. The figure that the company shuffled on this occasion amounted to 20% of its workforce, which in practice implied to dispense with approximately 20,000 workers. These people join the more than 15,000 employees of which Intel has dispensed with during the last months of 2024. In addition, since June 18 and throughout the month of July they will be forced to leave their jobs Between 8,000 and 10,900 workers Of the factories that this company has spread throughout the planet. However, presumably the most affected plant will be the largest of all: that of Oregon (USA). It is evident that Intel is going through a very difficult stage, although he still has some solid pillars to hold on. One of them is China. During the fiscal year of 2024, 29% of Intel’s turnover came from China, compared to the 24% of the US This Asian country is the largest market in which Intel is present. During the fiscal year of 2024 29% of its turnover He came from Chinacompared to 24% of the US. And is that of the 53,100 million dollars that This company entered Last year no less than 15,400 million arrived from China. These figures reflect very clearly how important the country led by Xi Jinping for Intel is. And also how sensitive it is to the geopolitical context. An important part of the Intel business is supported by the commercialization of relatively old integrated circuits that come from their mature lithography nodes. They are not at all avant -garde semiconductors, but they are still necessary. At the current tension situation between the US and China for this last country These mature integrated circuits are crucial. Chinese chip designers and manufacturers are capable of supply your own market With the mature chips needed by appliances, telecommunications or cars equipment, among other industries. However, many users, research centers and universities in China continue to use software for X86 and X86-64 processors, so at the moment they cannot do without the CPUs designed to execute it. Intel is currently benefiting from this need, although he is preparing another bet. An a priori accurate bet. And this American company has founded the Japanese investment group SoftBank A company specialized in the design and manufacture of memory chips. His name is Saimemory and he was born expressly to compete from you to you with SK Hynix, Samsung and Micron Technology. Your plan consists in developing A new type of dram memory Stacked high from some patents prepared by Intel and several Japanese research centers, among which is the University of Tokyo. Intel and Softbank have proposed to complete the development of a prototype and evaluate its viability from a technical point of view by 2027. Image | Intel More information | The Oregonian In Xataka | Intel has confirmed that the 20A node will be skipped to reduce expenses. The 18A node will enter production in 2025

Intel will fit one of the toughest blows in its history. One directed directly to its chips factories

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“These decisions are difficult, but they are essential to face the challenges we are already facing the company’s current financial situation. It is very painful.” These words They are part of the statement That Naga Chandrasekaran, the manufacturing vice president of Intel, sent the employees of this company last Saturday. In his concrete message that the Board of Directors is preparing A template reduction that will range between 15 and 20%as well as most of the cuts will arrive in July. The challenges a Those who currently face Intel They exceed the other challenges that he has faced during his more than half a century of history. The leadership that has sustained for decades in the manufacturing industry of integrated circuits is in the hands of The Taiwanese company TSMC since the mid -2000s. In addition, the stagnation during the last years of the PC market and the slowness with which Intel has participated in the industry of the industry of the artificial intelligence (AI) have placed it in a very compromised position. In July 2024, the company that at that time led Pat Gelsinger gave a tremendous batacazo in the stock market. Their actions fell 30% in a few days and stabilized in the value they had in 2011. In addition, Intel lost $ 1.6 billion During the second quarter of 2024 and its year -on -year income fell by 1%. These circumstances triggered a crisis that still persists today. This cut will have an inevitable impact on Intel factories Last August 2 Intel announced that was about to start a structural adjustment plan that pursued to reduce the costs of the company and increase its agility when adapting to the challenges that the market currently imposes. Its objective was to fire 15% of the workforce (more than 15,000 employees) and reduce costs by approximately 10,000 million dollars. Pat Gelsinger had declared shortly before Intel was inefficient because he had an excessively complex structure. It is still early to identify how this measure will affect the competitiveness and performance of Intel factories Not even Gelsinger himself “survived” this regeneration process. On December 2 This executive came out in a somewhat precipitated way of the company, whose course was uncertain until last March 18 Lip-bu took the reins of Intel. This veteran physicist and nuclear engineer He hastened to confirm that two of the pillars of its strategy would pursue reinforce the company’s position in the AI ​​market and reposition Intel as a leading company in the integrated circuit manufacturing industry. Shortly after his arrival It was leaked that lip-bu so He planned to launch a new cut of the Intel template in a clear attempt to reduce their operating expenses, among which personnel costs or marketing expenses are counted. The figure that the company shuffled on this occasion amounted to 20% of its workforce, which in practice implied to dispense with approximately 20,000 workers. These people join the more than 15,000 employees of which Intel has dispensed with during the last months of 2024. Now we know something else. From the statement that Naga Chandrasekaran has sent just four days ago to Intel employees it follows that during the next weeks they will be forced to leave their jobs Between 8,000 and 10,900 factor workers That has this company disseminated throughout the planet. However, presumably the most affected plant will be the largest of all: that of Oregon (USA). It is still early to identify how this measure will affect the competitiveness and performance of Intel factories, but its size invites us to anticipate that it will have a deep impact on the production infrastructure of this company. Image | Intel More information | Oregon Live In Xataka | Intel has confirmed that the 20A node will be skipped to reduce expenses. The 18A node will enter production in 2025

The massive bombings of Iran threaten something essential to Intel: its facilities in Israel

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A good part of Innovations that Intel has introduced In its microprocessors during the last twenty -two years it comes from IDC (Israel Development Center), The development center that the company has in Haifa (Israel). This subsidiary was responsible for tuning in 2003 the microarchitecture P6 (banias), One of the most successful Intel has launched in the last three decades. The high performance/watt ratio of the Pentium M processors used on the centrine platform was largely due to this microarchitecture, which represented a very overwhelming break with the netburst microarchitecture used in Pentium 4 processors. The weight that the Israel Development Center currently has in Intel infrastructure is huge, and it all started thanks to the success of Pentium M processors and the centrine platform. Israeli engineers had the ability to “cut the healthy” with the Netburst microarchitecture of the Pentium 4 and take as a starting point the P6 implementation of the Pentium III. And they were right. Intel realized that this was the path he had to follow, so he certified the end of the Pentium saga as we knew it at that time, ending a reign that began in early 1993. Intel has a lot to lose in the war between Israel and Iran The war conflict currently supporting Israel and will threaten the lives of many people in these two countries because both are using a huge amount of missiles with a great capacity for destruction. One of the Israeli cities that are being bombarded with greater intensity by Iran is precisely haifa. According to Israel’s defense forces (FDI) During the night of June 13 to 14 they fell on this city and other regions of the north of this country about 150 Iranian ballistic missiles, and some of them reached several urban areas of Haifa. The size of missile attacks that are carrying out both countries is such that no civil installation is safe Israel has adopted a very opaque position that prevents knowing precisely from outside this country What damage are the attacks of Iran. For this last country the Intel facilities in Haifa They have no strategic valueso right now it seems unlikely to attack them expressly. Even so, the size of missile attacks that are carrying out both countries is such that no civil installation is safe, especially if it is close to a government building or a military installation. In any case, the Haifa Development Center is not the only thing Intel can lose in Israel. In the center of the country, about 50 km south of Tel Aviv, resides its manufacturing plant of Kiryat Gat avant -garde. I have had the opportunity to visit so much HAIFA facilities as those of Kiryat Gat On two occasions (2019 and 2022), and the latter are equipped with a multitude of photolithography equipment made by ASML, Tokyo Electron and other companies. Intel manufactures a good part of the processors that we can buy PC users, so it is evident that it has a crucial role in its production infrastructure. At the moment Iran has concentrated its missile attacks in the northern half of Israel, so the most affected cities are Haifa, Tel Aviv, Bat Yam and Ramat Gan. It seems that the region in which Kiryat Gat is not bombarded, but right now it is very difficult to foresee How will this conflict evolve and to what extent the integrated circuit manufacturing plant of Intel is or not at risk. Of course, it has something important in its favor to remain safe: it is housed in a relatively isolated industrial zone and far from any military or government installation. To damage it a priori Iran would have to consider it a priority objective and express it expressly. Image | Intel In Xataka | Intel has a bullet in the bedroom. A bullet capable of helping you compete from you with TSMC In Xataka | Intel and TSMC lead the revolution of photonic chips. His problem is that China has just done fully in this war

Intel and TSMC lead the revolution of photonic chips. His problem is that China has just done fully in this war

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Douglas Yu, a TSMC executive, The biggest chips manufacturer on the planetwith responsibility in the field of systems integration Explain clearly The disruptive capacity of integrated photonic circuits: “If we manage to implement a good system of integration of silicon’s photonics We will trigger a new paradigm. We will probably be placed at the beginning of a new era. “ The photonic silicon seeks to develop the technology of this chemical element to optimize the transformation of electrical signals into light pulses. The most obvious field of application of this innovation is the implementation of high performance links that, on paper, can be used both to solve communications between several chips and to optimize the transfer of information between several machines. Advanced packaging technologies with which the main semiconductor manufacturers work, such as TSMC, Intel or Samsung, can benefit a lot from a communication mechanism between very high performance chips. And the large data centers in which it is necessary to connect a large number of machines, too. However, there is a particular discipline to which it would be wonderful about the advantages proposed by the photonic silicon: the artificial intelligence (AI). China plans to use this technology in AI, 6G communications and quantum computers Intel and TSMC are some of the companies that have been working on the development of their technologies linked to the photonic silicon, and, as we can intuit, this innovation is no stranger to Chinese companies and research centers. In fact, in mid -May 2024 the Institute of Information Technology and Microsystems of Shanghai (China) in collaboration with the Lausanian Institute of Technology (Switzerland) reached a crucial milestone. Until that time one of the fundamental ingredients of the integrated photonic circuits was the lithium niobate. The lithium tantalate allows the manufacture of large -scale photonic chips and with much lower costs This synthetic salt intervenes in the manufacture of these integrated circuits because its physicochemical properties allow it to optimize the conversion of electricity into light, but it has a problem: the industrial exploitation of this technology is conditioned by The high cost that each wafer hasand also for the size of each of them. What these scientists have achieved is to replace the lithium niobate with other semiconductor material whose properties are even more attractive: the lithium tantalate (litao3). Ou Xin, one of the scientists who have led this project, assures That in addition to paying better than the lithium niobate, the lithium tantaloate allows the manufacture of large -scale photonic circuit and with much lower costs. This is because the manufacturing processes are similar to those currently used to produce conventional silicon semiconductors. This is the context in which, according to SCMPthe chips center for integrated photonics Xplore (Chipx) of the Jiao Tong University of Shanghai has announced that it has started the production of 6 -inch wafers for photonic chips. Interestingly, this production line Use Lithium Niobateso it still has a room to advance and take advantage of the properties of the lithium tantalate. Be as Professor Jin Xianmin, the director of CHIPX, says that the photonic integrated circuits have a huge potential not only in the training and inference of AI models, the classical supercomputing and Quantum computersbut also in the development of communications 6g. Image | TSMC More information | SCMP In Xataka | Today China and the US have parked their differences for a good reason: they will analyze together the risks of AI

Intel plans to get fully into the market in which South Korean SK Hynix has become rich: memories for AI

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The South Korean company SK Hynix leads the HBM memories market (High Bandwidth Memory) With a shocking authority. Your market share Broken 70%so that the remaining 30% are distributed by Samsung and the American memory manufacturer Micron Technology. These memoirs work side by side with the GPUs for artificial intelligence (AI). In fact, one of SK Hynix’s main clients, possibly the oldest, is Nvidia. According to the consultant Datam Intelligence The global market centers market for AI will grow annually 24.5%, so it will go from having a volume of 13,670 million dollars in 2024 to no less than 78,910 million in 2032. For designers and integrated circuit manufacturers compete in a market with this growth potential is crucial, hence several Chinese companies are planning to get into it. And for Intel represents a too juicy opportunity to let it escape. Intel and Softbank work together in a new type of memories for ia The manufacture of HBM memories is very complex. This is the reason why this market at the moment is distributed only to the three companies that I have mentioned in the first paragraph of this article. However, its great growth potential will surely cause other companies over the next few years. Intel is going to be one of them, although the interesting thing is that he will not compete alone or fight for the HBM chip market. Intel and Softbank have proposed to complete the development of a prototype and evaluate its viability from a technical point of view by 2027 This American company has founded a company specialized in the design and manufacture of memory chips from the Japanese investment group. His name Saimemory And he was born expressly to compete from you to you with SK Hynix, Samsung and Micron Technology. Your plan consists in developing a new type of High performance packed dram memory From some patents prepared by Intel and several Japanese research centers, among which is the University of Tokyo. Intel and Softbank have proposed to complete the development of a prototype and evaluate its viability from a technical point of view by 2027. In fact, they intend to manufacture on a large scale and market this dram memory stacked for ia before it ends this decade. The performance of HBM memories is very high, but, as I mentioned a few lines above, they are difficult to manufacture. In addition, they are expensive, they dissipate a lot of energy in the form of heat and consume a lot of electricity. Stacked dram memories, however, on paper will be easier to produce, more efficient, and also cheaper. If when they are really satisfied the expectations that have generated it is possible that They end up displacing HBM chips. In fact, Intel and Softbank are not at all the only companies that trust the potential of stacked dram memories; Samsung and Neo Semiconductor are also developing this type of chips, so before the Memoirs market expires this decade will be much more competitive than today. Image | Samsung More information | Nikkei Asia In Xataka | South Korea fears US reprisals. To avoid their old lithography equipment, they take dust on a warehouse

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