Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world's largest foundry corporations, is reported to have proposed a joint investment in the struggling U.S. semiconductor firm Intel to NVIDIA and others.
On the 12th, Reuters, citing four anonymous sources, reported that TSMC proposed equity investments to major U.S. companies including NVIDIA, AMD, and Broadcom regarding a joint venture to operate Intel's factories. Some sources noted that TSMC also made such proposals to Qualcomm.
The proposal reportedly includes that TSMC would operate Intel's institutional sector but would not exceed a 50% equity stake.
According to sources, this proposal was made after the Trump administration requested TSMC's assistance in overcoming Intel's crisis, which symbolizes the U.S. semiconductor industry, and the discussions are said to be in the early stages. Intel, TSMC, and other related corporations declined to comment.
The sources believe that final agreements among the corporations will require approval from the Trump administration, as it does not want Intel's foundry sector to be completely taken over by foreign corporations.
Earlier, last month, Bloomberg reported that TSMC was considering a plan to acquire and operate equity in Intel's factories at the request of the Trump administration. Reports have also emerged that Broadcom is interested in acquiring Intel's chip design and marketing institutional sector.
Intel once dominated the global semiconductor market centered around personal computer (PC) central processing units (CPUs), but has fallen behind in competition with NVIDIA, AMD, and others, showing limitations in supplying the high-performance hardware needed for artificial intelligence (AI) operations.