Analysts at Citi and JPMorgan are not buying rumours that Intel will manufacture Google’s custom AI chips, known as tensor processing units.
Intel’s foundry business and its EMIB-T packaging technology have been at the centre of supply chain rumours lately. Google’s reported work with Chipzilla and capacity constraints at TSMC have made Intel look like an alternative to the Taiwanese outfit’s technology.
However, JPMorgan thinks the chips mentioned in the report will still be made by TSMC, with Chipzilla handling the packaging.
The Information’s report caused a bit of a stir by claiming Google had placed an order with Intel to manufacture three million TPU chips. It was the first report of its kind to make that claim. Earlier reports had pointed only to a partnership between the pair for packaging technology.
In semiconductor manufacturing, packaging refers to the final assembly of a chip, where its different components are stuck together and made useful. Chipzilla’s EMIB-T offers a lower-cost alternative to TSMC’s high-end CoWoS technology. It is mainly preferred for lower-power custom AI chips.
Investment bank JPMorgan thinks the Intel-Google partnership is limited to packaging rather than chip fabrication. In its coverage, JPMorgan said the report “seems like a storm in a teacup/nothing clearly new.”
The bank said companies such as Google might be looking at Intel as a backup for AI chip manufacturing, given tight capacity at TSMC. However, JPMorgan said there was little evidence to back up those manufacturing claims.
The bank took aim at the claim that three million TPUs would be manufactured at Intel.
JPMorgan said “these chips are still being fabbed at TSMC,” with the fab using a 2-nanometre process for the compute die and a 3-nanometre process for the input-output die.
Citi had a poke at the report, saying the report must be about packaging, rather than full chip manufacturing.
Citi Taiwan semiconductor analyst Laura Chen believes the report could cover Intel’s foundry and design services, along with EMIB-T packaging technology. So for now, Chipzilla may have won a useful packaging gig, while the big TPU manufacturing crown still appears to be sitting at TSMC.
