Former Intel CEO says splitting Intel isn’t good for the U.S.
Intel’s financial situation has recently been in trouble, mainly due to the massive losses of its foundry division. Because of this, several reports say that the company is considering spinning off manufacturing as a completely different entity, similar to what AMD did with GlobalFoundries. However, former Intel CEO Craig Barrett wrote on Fortune that doing so would hurt Intel and impair America’s goal of semiconductor leadership.
Barrett argues that chip manufacturers require massive investments to remain competitive. Only three chipmakers — Intel, Samsung, and TSMC — have the revenue to sustain the research and development needed for future products. Intel’s design arm would likely survive this split, but it’s an open question if Intel’s foundry business would last.
He compared this to the AMD-GlobalFoundries split in 2008. Today, AMD is doing well in the CPU field with its Ryzen processors, and TSMC produces many of its chips. On the other hand, GlobalFoundries has fallen behind TSMC because it does not have any differentiating technology that would allow it to be on the leading edge of semiconductor manufacturing.
