Intel Corp (INTC)

[walbert]

To me, there is little doubt that these two will be the major force pushing TSMC 20nm into volume production, and potentially the two that help TSMC to push 16nm into volume production. It's really a huge amount of leverage. The process needs large customers to push volumes and lower costs. With these large customers, everyone will benefit - and without them, everyone will lose.

This idea that a lot of push will change anything on 20 or 16nm is a non-starter for me. I just don't believe any amount of money will speed the process up significantly. Intel had all the money in the world and it took them ten years to do FinFET. So the idea that Apple and Qualcomm throwing a few extra bucks into the pot seems like something that will have little or no effect.