Intel Exits Foundry

Foundry has become a major new focus for Intel with plans to become the world’s No.2 foundry by 2030. However, 20 years ago, things were very different as Intel exited the area after a two year dabble.

In January 2003, this story appeared in the Press:-

‘Intel has decided that the Asic design services business doesn’t fit with its core strategies. While the world’s largest chipmaker still plans to use its resources and talent internally, it isn’t going to be available for other Asic vendors.

“The service business as a standalone business will no longer exist,” Intel corporate spokeswoman Erica Fields confirmed yesterday. “As a service business it doesn’t map with our strategy.”
Intel constantly reevaluates its strategy, and the Asic services unit, as a standalone business unit, is not strategic to its core silicon business, she added.

Intel is working with current customers to ensure completion of products currently in the Asic services pipeline, Fields explained. Once that is completed, Intel will focus its Asic design resources inward.

Intel first opened its Asic design unit to outside companies as its Microelectronic Services business in the autumn of 2001. While some speculate that margins for the business have dropped as Asic starts have fallen off during the downturn, and this led to Intel’s decision, the firm told Electronic News last September that the Asic design unit was doing well. In the year since its launch, it was averaging five to seven tapeouts a quarter for customers.’

It turned out that Intel was not offering its ASIC customers its EDA tools or its fab processes.