Exclusive: Former Intel CEO Craig Barrett outlines plan to save Intel and America’s advanced chip manufacturing

ary·aryExclusive: Former Intel CEO Craig Barrett outlines plan to Intel and America’s advanced chip manufacturingBy Craig BarrettBy Craig Barrett Craig Barrett is a former CEO and Board Chairman of Intel.Former Intel CEO Craig BarrettJustin Sullivan/Getty Images1

Yes, the USA NEEDS INTEL, as Intel is the only U.S. company capable of viding state of the art logic manufacturing. 2

Neither Samsung or TSMC plan to bring their state of the art manufacturing to the U.S. in the near term. 3

U.S. customers Nvidia, Apple, Google, etc needs and should understand they NEED a second source for their lead duct manufacturing due to pricing, geographic stability and supply line security reasons. 4

Intel is cash poor and can’t afford to invest in the capacity needed in the future to replace TSMC or even a reasonable fraction of TSMC capacity

The only place the cash can come from is the customers

The current Intel CEO’s s not in new nology (14A) until customers is a joke

To win in this space you need to be the leader in nology not the er

It takes multiple years to create one of these nologies and no customer wants to for something that is second best. 7

Fortunately Intel has good nology to work with (high NA EUV, backside power, etc) so they have a realistic shot at leadership IF THEY INVEST NOW

They just need the money. 8

Where does the money come from? The customers invest for a piece of Intel and guaranteed supply

Why should they invest? Domestic supply, second source, national security, leverage in negotiating with TSMC, etc

If we can support domestic steel and aluminum, surely we can support domestic semiconductors. 9

The FFWBMs (four former wise board members) of Intel continue to claim you have to break Intel into two pieces before any customer will invest in Intel

There are many company interactions that involve both supply and competition

It is also extremely hard to imagine Intel really competing with the s of Nvidia, Apple, Meta, Google, Dell, etc in their well established duct lines

By all means, if you want to complicate the blem, then take the time to split up Intel and make the FFWBMs happy but if you’re in the of saving Intel and its core manufacturing strength for the USA then solve the real blem – immediate investment in Intel, committed customers, national security, etc. 10

POTUS and DoC can set the stage, the customers can make the necessary investments, the Intel Board can finally do something positive for the company, and we stop writing opinion pieces on the topic

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