Intel Corp (INTC)

[Unkwn]

Today at the Intel Developer Forum, Intel Custom Foundry announced new customers and details on previously announced customers ranging from 22nm all the way down to 10nm, including Achronix, LG Electronics , Netronome and Spreadtrum. Their products range from networking accelerators and FPGAs to mobile SoCs.

About time. The question remains: Will they finally execute? Krzanich as a process guy should have all the ties necessary to make this happen. Looking at the Altera disaster with Stratix 10, I remain to be convinced, though. You only fool your foundry customers once.

As to whether this weakens x86: Why should it? Intel hardly has any process lead today. I believe it will fully be gone at 10nm anyway. It's all about a piece of the foundry pie, with TSMC as the biggest looser. Samsung and Intel are, financially and technology wise, much stronger than TSMC. Samsung can't, for many reasons, dominate the world's semiconductor industry, so there will be a share left for Intel as well, if, and that is a big if, they are doing their freaking job this time right! I'll wait for actual design wins delivered in time, though (@14nm and later 10 nm, not 22nm that is).

There is always business to be had next to the global leader, which arguably is Samsung now. Micron proves it. They have their share of the memory business, even though they are much smaller than Samsung and having a hard time competing in price. There will also be some foundry business left for Intel to pick up.

This will help to fund new process developments and to stay at the cutting edge with x86. It wouldn't be possible just with the server and PC business alone. Intel still needs to make x86 stay relevant by finally grabbing share of the mobile market. That would bring them better margins than foundry also.

Not everything lost at Intel it seems, but a lot to improve for sure. I'll wait and see.