TSMC to produce Intel chipsets and Atom CPUs?

The rumor about Intel planning to outsource some of its production is circulating again. As you may know, the chip giant's 14nm capacity is fully utilized and that's causing supply issues. Intel is investing money to increase its capacity, but word is going around that the company will also tap TSMC to take care of production of some entry-level parts and chipsets.

DigiTimes heard from sources in the upstream supply chain that Intel has begun planning to outsource production of some of its chipsets as well as entry-level Atom processors. These parts will be fabbed by TSMC, while higher-margin products like the Xeon and Core processors will remain in-house. Intel declined to comment on market rumors.

The site explains TSMC is the only option for Intel, as it's the only foundry capable of handling such rush orders. Not that there are many other options, the only other foundries capable of 14nm production are Samsung and GlobalFoundries. TSMC is also the most neutral among these three. DigiTimes heard Intel and TSMC have been preparing this outsourcing job since mid-2018:

The sources pointed out that Intel and TSMC have been in talks about outsourcing production for the chip giant's CPU and chipset since mid-2018.

Intel had worked with the Taiwan-based foundry house including having TSMC manufacture SoCs using Atom as the basic architecture in 2009 and the production of Intel's SoFIA handset SoC in 2013. Currently, TSMC is the manufacturer of Intel's FPGA series products.