Richard said that Intel was just investing in fabs and process technology that is likely to result in diminishing returns. He was also concerned that Apple has signed a long-rumoured chip deal with TSMC to move some production away from Samsung Electronics.
The three year foundry agreement is for 20nm, 16nm and 10nm and it now appears that Intel will get any of Apple’s business in the short term. Richard wrote that it is highly unlikely for Samsung to broadly adopt Intel’s CPUs in its smartphones or tablets which shuts the door on the high-end mobile market for Intel for the foreseeable future.
Despite Intel’s lead in chip technology, Richard actually thinks TSMC, IBM and others pose a credible threat, in part because Intel doesn’t have the right intellectual property to fill the fabs.
