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Earlier this month, former Intel board members warned that the company’s retreat from advanced semiconductor manufacturing will threaten U.S. leadership in AI and other critical technologies, Forbes reported.
Intel already announced plans to either completely shutter or scale back many of its overseas plants, leading to delayed projects. In doing so, the U.S. will have to rely more on Taiwan’s TSMC and South Korea’s Samsung to bring their most advanced processes to the U.S.
The former board members stated that much like the first Trump administration’s “Operation Warp Speed” to deliver a COVID-19 vaccine as quickly as possible, a similar “Operation Warp Speed II” should enact via a private-public partnership, Japanese investment commitments, and unspent CHIPS Act Funds. This would enable future customers, including Nvidia, Qualcomm, Broadcom, Google, Amazon, Apple, and others, to buy Intel’s fabrication assets; otherwise, the United States will be “dangerously dependent on a single manufacturing firm,” they argued.
On Aug. 10, former Intel CEO Craig Barrett also stated that Intel is the only U.S. company capable of providing state-of-the-art logic manufacturing, and U.S. companies need to understand that they need a second source for the lead product manufacturing due to pricing, geographic stability, and supply line security reasons, Forbes reported.
Barrett also noted that Intel is cash-poor and needs a cash infusion of $40 billion to be competitive. He stated that money would be the entire CHIPS Act Grant funds, which is not feasible. Instead, he said funds must come from the above U.S. companies, which are cash rich. If eight of them invest $5 billion, Intel would have the required funds to be competitive.
He also dismissed the board members’ argument that Intel needs to be broken up before customers will invest. Instead, he called for immediate customer investment, potential U.S. tariffs on advanced chip imports, and coordinated action from the White House, Commerce Department, Intel’s board, and industry partners to secure America’s semiconductor leadership.
