News: 0179633584

  ARM Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)

AMD In Early Talks To Make Chips At Intel Foundry (tomshardware.com)

(Thursday October 02, 2025 @11:30PM (BeauHD) from the what-to-expect dept.)


"Your AMD chips may have Intel Inside soon," writes longtime Slashdot reader [1]DesScorp . "Discussions are underway between the two companies to [2]move an undisclosed amount of AMD's chip business to Intel foundries . (AMD currently does their production through TSMC.) The talks come hot on the heels of a flurry of [3]other Intel investments ." Tom's Hardware reports:

> In the past several weeks, Intel has seen a flurry of activity and investments. The United States [4]announced a 9.9% ownership stake in Intel, while Softbank [5]bought $2 billion worth of shares. Alongside Nvidia, Intel announced new x86 chips using Nvidia graphics technology, with the graphics giant also purchasing $5 billion in Intel shares. There have also been reports that Intel and Apple have been [6]exploring ways to work together.

The article notes that there is a trade/political dimension to an AMD-Intel deal as well:

> It makes sense for Intel's former rivals -- especially American companies -- to consider coming to the table. The White House is pushing for 50% of chips bound for America to be built domestically, and tariffs on chips aren't off the table. Additionally, doing business with Intel could make the US government, Intel's largest shareholder, happy, which can be good for business. AMD faced export restrictions on its GPUs earlier this year as the US attempted to throttle China's AI business.



[1] https://slashdot.org/~DesScorp

[2] https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/amd-in-early-talks-to-make-chips-at-intel-foundry-report-says

[3] https://slashdot.org/story/25/09/18/1226210/nvidia-to-invest-5-billion-in-intel

[4] https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/08/22/1849210/intel-has-agreed-to-a-deal-for-us-to-take-10-equity-stake-trump-says

[5] https://slashdot.org/story/25/08/18/2337225/intel-is-getting-a-2-billion-investment-from-softbank

[6] https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/09/24/2141256/intel-approaches-apple-for-potential-investment-amid-struggles



Re: (Score:2)

by Tablizer ( 95088 )

I'm waiting for these clowns to screw up bad enough that even their fans have to realize they are bozos with snake oil (or on snake oil). For example, let him nuke a hurricane and then have to evacuate two South Eastern states because of radiation risk.

My fault, I jinxed Intel (Score:1)

by Tablizer ( 95088 )

As soon as I purchased Intel stock, they lost their mojo.

Is AMD Making Potato Chips? (Score:2)

by organgtool ( 966989 )

I can't imagine AMD wanting anything to do with Intel's fab process. Intel fabs have been struggling for years and they're barely keeping up with TSMC and yet AMD is going to use them to build their processors?

> The article notes that there is a trade/political dimension to an AMD-Intel deal as well

Oh, there it is! AMD, blink twice if you're doing this against your will. I guess they can always produce a bunch of low-end chips nobody cares about on Intel's fabs and Trump won't know the difference.

Re: (Score:2)

by Mspangler ( 770054 )

There are a lot more low-end chips made than whatever the gamers think they need.

Some Apple products have modest CPUs too (Score:2)

by drnb ( 2434720 )

> There are a lot more low-end chips made than whatever the gamers think they need.

It true on the Apple side too. For example the iPhone SE models use older chips. Another possible opportunity for Intel.

Re: (Score:2)

by stabiesoft ( 733417 )

I thought the deal was at least 1/2 your parts have to be made in the US or no cookies for you. So as you say, they'll have the Intel fab make a bunch of trivial parts for pennies each, and just flush them. Cheaper than paying 2X tariff on those 100 dollar parts. You can always game the system. Trump of all people should understand that. He was excellent at it. Well his tax accountant was, donnie was clueless beyond "bring me back a return with a 5% tax rate or less, or YOUR FIRED"

Re: (Score:2)

by organgtool ( 966989 )

> You can always game the system. Trump of all people should understand that

The intent is not to produce results - it's to produce the appearance of results.

Re: (Score:2)

by rsilvergun ( 571051 )

So it's not a good idea to lose Intel's fabs for lots of reasons so you can expect several unlikely partners to prop them up. AMD can find a use for them it's not that they're bad it's just they're not the best and the world is ultra hypercompetitive. The slightest misstep and Wall Street eats you alive. It's like a mafia you're only as good as your last envelope

Re: (Score:2)

by organgtool ( 966989 )

I don't disagree with anything you've said. At the same time, it seems like a terrible idea to force U.S. companies to produce half of their chips using subpar technologies in an extremely competitive global market when going against foreign companies that have already surpassed us and don't have such foolish restrictions. This will only give China a much larger advantage while making it more expensive for Americans to get the highest quality chips.

I do not plan to ever buy another Intel machine (Score:2)

by jdawgnoonan ( 718294 )

Intel is legacy technology and they cannot compete with TMSC. They tried and failed. The government is not good at picking winners and I do not believe they picked on this time either. The thing about the best and brightest and the US Government is a lie, they simply do not pay very well. And the people in charge are only there for power.

Politics, like religion, hold up the torches of martyrdom to the
reformers of error.
-- Thomas Jefferson