Intel’s New CEO Confident ‘Majority’ of Its Future Chips Will Be Produced Internally

Intel’s incoming CEO Pat Gelsinger is signaling he’ll stick with manufacturing the company’s chips internally over outsourcing all of the production to a foreign company.

“Based on initial reviews, I’m pleased with the progress with the health and recovery of the 7-nanometer program. I am confident that the majority of our 2023 products will be manufactured internally,” Gelsinger said in a Thursday earnings call with Intel executives. 

He made the comment after personally examining Intel’s progress on the 7nm node, which has been delayed to early 2023 after the company discovered a defect in the technology. The 7nm struggles have caused the US chip giant to consider outsourcing future CPU processor production to Taiwan’s TSMC or Korea’s Samsung, which have been making steady progress on their own manufacturing technologies. 

Gelsinger won’t make a final decision on the matter until after he officially takes over as CEO on Feb. 15th. Nevertheless, he said it was necessary for Intel to keep improving its products for both the company and the US to remain competitive on the technology front. 

“This (Intel) is a national asset,” Gelsinger said. “This company needs to be healthy for the technology industry, for technology in America.”

That all said, Gelsinger anticipates leveraging both internal and external chip production to create the best products. “Given the breadth of our portfolio, it’s likely that we will expand our use of external foundries for certain technology and products,” he added. 

The products will include Intel’s upcoming discrete graphics cards, which will be made through a third-party foundry. Reports are also circulating that the company has already tapped TSMC to manufacture some Core i3 chips later this year. 

During the same call, Intel’s outgoing CEO Bob Swan said the company has resolved the defect in the 7nm process by rearchitecting the technology. “As part of this work over the last six months, we’ve also streamlined and simplified our 7nm process architecture to better ensure we’ll be able to deliver on our 2023 product roadmap,” he added.