The move by Intel’s new Chief Executive Pat (Kicking) Gelsinger aims to restore Intel’s reputation after manufacturing stumbles sent shares plunging last year.

Intel said on Tuesday it will build two factories in Arizona and open its plants to outside customers, directly challenging TSMC and Samsung. 

Shares in TSMC, the world’s largest contract chip manufacturer fell as much as 3.9 per cent on Wednesday morning, compared with a drop of around one percent for the others on the market. 

TSMC announced plans in May to build its own $12 billion factories in Arizona, in an apparent win by the then-Trump administration in its push to wrestle global tech supply chains back from China.

Taiwan Economy Minister Wang Mei-hua said Intel’s plan was “not a challenge” to the island’s formidable semiconductor industry.

“First of all I believe that our whole semiconductor ecosystem is very good, and secondly our manufacturers are awesome and are continually advancing their technology”, she said.

Wang said she would be happy to see Taiwan-U.S. cooperation on semiconductors “but of course we still hope they can increase their investment in Taiwan”.