The deal comes at an opportune time for Intel.
“Scale matters in our business,” division President Randhir Thakur said.
“One key benefit of us having other products running into our factories is it gives us scale.”
The geopolitical calculus of chipmaking is changing, too.
That’s major progress for Chinese chipmaking, which despite massive government investment has trailed technologically.
Biden touted the new CHIPS Act at a meeting with leaders from defense, transportation and medical industries.
Intel has a lot of catching up to do.
MediaTek competes against companies like Qualcomm and Samsung that make smartphone processors and modem chips for wireless networking.
It picked Intel in part to have more chip sourcing options.
Intel manufacturing will help “create a more diversified supply chain,” said N.S.
Tsai, a corporate senior vice president at MediaTek.
“We look forward to building a long-term partnership.”
Apersistent, global chip shortagetriggered in 2020 by the COVID pandemic has focused acute attention on supply chain issues.
Scarce processors hobbled delivery of everything from Ford F-150 pickup trucks to Sony PlayStation 5 gaming consoles.
But IFS faces many challenges.
Intel has historically had its own chip design tools and manufacturing processes tailored to its own chip products.
Accommodating outside chip designs requires a profound business and operational transformation.
It’s physically partitioned fab floor space for foundry customers and has a similarly separated computer system.
