It looks like Intel will get into the foundry business, but despite the fact that this sounds mind-blowing, it won’t be as exciting as you could imagine.
Intel will let some smaller players build their chips on 22nm as the company is the leader in changing the manufacturing process. At this time TSMC as its greatest competitor is at 28nm, with test chips in 22nm, and Global foundries at 32nm in Dresden and 28nm slowly staring this year in Malta, New York State.
When we say Intel will make chips on its own terms it means that it will accept designs from companies that won’t compete Intel's offerings. Intel has even publicly mentioned few potential clients and we will try to get this information confirmed for you.
In the long run, since Qualcomm and Apple are both fighting for TSMC’s love, there might be a time when Intel broadens its partner list trying to make money of these ultra-big, building fabs investments.
This is a rather interesting twist and it looks like over the course of next two years TSMC will finally get some decent competition.