Intel hinted to investors in the last day that it might outsource 7nm, to focus on 5nm & 3nm — so here we are.

https://au.pcmag.com/processors/84184/despite-7nm-struggle-i...

This doesn't bode well for Intel's 5nm and 3nm processes. Part of the problem with their 10nm process is that they tried to scale transistor density far more aggressively than their competitors. Jumping 2 nodes in one go is far more difficult today as feature size approaches atomic scale than it was 20 years ago. Better to have a process that's an improvement over the previous generation than to have a process without the yields needed to support commercialization (which is effectively no process at all).

This is a good move on Intel side, they cant just take a risk of delaying 7nm further. AMD is giving competetion to them and they have lost Apple, one of their biggest customer.

But if they are going with TSMC why not 5nm instead of 7nm.

is there even any 5nm capacity available?. I thought apple booked all the available 5nm?, Im not sure how long for though.

I wonder how much it would cost Intel to acquire TSMC's process.

It’s unlikely Taiwan would approve the sale, so it’s not probably worth the speculation .

I meant to license the fabrication process from TSMC, not acquire TSMC.

I read that salaries in Taiwan aren't that high, so even if they couldn't buy the hardware (they wouldn't allow it), they have the cash reserves to buy the know-how