Intel Nears Foundry Inflection Point

Rick Merritt, SiliconValley Bureau Chief
EETimes (11/22/2013 12:58 PM EST)

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Intel's new chief executive Brian Krzanich is clearly on the hot seat. The world's largest chip maker told analysts yesterday 2014 will be another flat year for the company accustomed to outpacing chip industry growth, yet it is maintaining historically high capex spending, seeing the need for a new 450mm fab on the horizon.

The good news is Intel claims it will have an edge over the rest of the industry in lower cost with its 14nm process that's now ramping. The bad news is it doesn't appear to have any hot smartphone products to make in the process next year, and it's not clear to what extent it will let high volume competitors use its fabs.

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