Intel chief executive Lip-Bu Tan sees TSMC as a partner, even as he tries to rebuild Chipzilla’s competing foundry business.
Speaking on the A Bit Personal podcast with Global Semiconductor Alliance co-founder Jodi Shelton, Tan outlined an approach built around cooperation with fellow chip bosses. Given Chipzilla’s manufacturing troubles and AMD’s market share gains, keeping useful friends seems considerably cheaper than another round of corporate chest-beating.
Tan took charge last year after previously leading Cadence and building a venture capital business. His turnaround strategy centres on products and customers. He said some people were surprised when he began working with Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang, whom they regarded as a competitor.
Nvidia subsequently invested $5 billion in Chipzilla, providing a fairly substantial endorsement of staying on speaking terms. AMD chair and chief executive Lisa Su is another close friend. Tan said Su bought three of his companies during his venture capital career.
His friendly view extends to TSMC chairman and chief executive C. C. Wei, despite the overlap between the companies’ manufacturing ambitions. Tan expects Chipzilla to remain among TSMC’s top 10 customers and praised its “world-class” service for fabless chip designers.
He said Wei regards Chipzilla as a partner because TSMC cannot meet all the demand for AI chips. Tan’s admiration extends to TSMC founder Morris Chang. He said he travelled to Computex specifically to have lunch with him.
During that meeting, Tan credited TSMC with enabling the semiconductor industry’s growth. Without it, fabless companies would have faced the enormous expense of building their own factories.
He admitted the responsibility of turning around a company made sleeping difficult during his first month or so, with concern for employees feeding his fear of mistakes. Tan initially packed 22 meetings into a day after taking charge of Chipzilla. He has since reduced that schedule to between 10 and 12.
