TSMC's Comment on Intel: "A Serious Competitor, But No Shortcuts"

As competition in semiconductor manufacturing becomes increasingly visible, TSMC has shared a new statement. The company, announcing its first-quarter 2026 results, discussed both its own roadmap and its rivals. Revenue reaching $35.9 billion indicates that TSMC is maintaining its current position.

TSMC's Statement on Intel and 1.4nm

The company's CEO, C. C. Wei, stated that Intel is a strong competitor, but the foundry business is not an area that progresses as quickly as it might appear from the outside. It is noted that establishing a new production facility takes 2-3 years, followed by an additional 1-2 years to reach efficient production levels. Another noteworthy detail at this point is that Intel continues to be one of TSMC's customers.

Similarly, Tesla is both advancing its own production goals and maintaining its current reliance on TSMC. The Terafab project's initial operation with limited capacity suggests that this dependency will not change in the short term.

Not Underestimating Intel

On the technology front, competition is progressing at a more technical level. Intel's EMIB packaging solution was evaluated as "noteworthy" by TSMC. However, TSMC states that it already offers the largest packaging solutions and that these are actively used in high-end chips. In terms of production technologies, TSMC's roadmap is quite clear. The N2 process in the 2nm class has already entered high-volume production and is achieving good yield values.

The nanosheet architecture developed during this process plays a critical role, especially for artificial intelligence and high-performance systems. This technology is expected to be widely used in next-generation processors. The next step, the A14 (1.4nm) process, is among the company's long-term plans. This technology, targeted for 2028, promises gains such as a 10-15 percent performance increase at the same power consumption or 25-30 percent lower power consumption at the same performance. Additionally, a chip density increase of approximately 20 percent is targeted.