Samsung Electronics of Korea, TSMC of Taiwan, and Intel of the United States are competing in the United States for the foundry (semiconductor consignment production) market. Currently, Samsung Electronics is building a new foundry plant in Taylor, Texas, and TSMC is building a new foundry plant in Phoenix, Arizona. Intel, which is building two foundry lines in Chandler, Arizona, is planning to build a ‘mega fab’ in Ohio that combines large-scale semiconductor factories and research facilities, and is foreshadowing a major offensive.
According to the semiconductor industry and foreign media on the 17th, Intel is expected to announce the construction of a new semiconductor factory near Columbus, the capital of Ohio, on the 21st (local time). The initial investment amount is 20 billion dollars (about 24 trillion won).
The industry expects this to be the megafab paper mentioned by Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger. Intel’s Megafab refers to a complex that contains 6-8 semiconductor lines, research facilities, and education centers. Intel decided to build one megafab in the US and one in Europe, and has been searching for potential sites. When the megafab is completed, the final investment will exceed 100 billion dollars (about 120 trillion won).
Intel, which was an absolute powerhouse in the semiconductor industry, has lost its competitive edge in the central processing unit (CPU) sector, which is its main business, and is losing face in recent years. As the transition from 14 nm (1 nm is 1 billionth of a meter) to 10 nm was delayed, Apple, a major customer, left Intel to develop its own CPU. Here, the competitor, AMD, is strongly threatening Intel by releasing CPUs based on the 7-nano process. As the number of nano-processes decreases, semiconductor efficiency increases and power consumption decreases as the number of nano-processes decreases. In addition, Taiwan’s Nvidia is looking beyond the CPU’s place through its own graphics processing unit (GPU).
Intel’s beleaguered option was the foundry. In particular, as the semiconductor shortage in the United States worsened after the COVID-19 crisis, the demand for investment in foundries increased. The U.S. government has set aside $52 billion in subsidies. Intel announced an active investment in the name of producing high-tech semiconductors, including semiconductors for vehicles, which are absolutely necessary for the United States. Hidden in this was the strategy of maximizing the use of subsidies from the US government. Although Intel withdrew from the foundry business four years ago, the plan is that there is a sufficient chance of winning by utilizing the technology of the CPU process.
Unfortunately, in the foundry competition in the United States, the No. 1 company in each semiconductor sector has to fight. Samsung is the ‘absolute powerhouse’ in the memory semiconductor field, TSMC is the foundry, and Intel is the CPU field.
In addition, the factory they are currently building is expected to start full-scale operation in 2024, two years later. The new plant, which Samsung will invest $17 billion to build in Taylor, Texas, is set to start construction in the first quarter and start operation in the second half of 2024. The factories that TSMC and Intel are building in Arizona will also be operational in two years.
The competition for semiconductor investment not only in the US but also around the world is expected to continue for the time being. TSMC has already announced that it will execute the largest investment of $44 billion (about 52 trillion won) this year. Most of them are expected to be put into the construction of new production lines in Taiwan and the US. Samsung Electronics is also expected to begin construction of its 4th factory in Pyeongtaek this year. Intel is also expected to build additional megafabs in Europe beyond the US.
[이승훈 기자]
[ⓒ 매일경제 & mk.co.kr, 무단전재 및 재배포 금지]
