wbmw - what does IBM get out of it?
One could argue that AMD will provide some of their own research in deep sub-micron processing, and their manufacturing expertise for high volume. Is this worth a couple billion dollars to IBM, probably not.
If there is any substance to this rumor, then at best it's probably a foundry agreement of some sort.
Otherwise, this rumor is attempting to make the assertion that IBM is going to spend billions of dollars of its own money to build a state of the art fab and then hand it over to AMD. Don't you think IBM's stockholders would be upset that their company is spending this kind of cash simply to feed AMD's vindictive business model against Intel?