Intel Foundry Chief Unveils His Strategy

It's a curiously cautious plan and highly unlikely to succeed...

Intel’s self-styled transformation from IDM 1.0 to IDM 2.0 is a hugely consequential undertaking from an investor perspective. Key to that transformation is Intel’s goal to enter the foundry business. Originally, the stated aim was to become the global #2, leapfrogging Samsung, by 2030. That’s now changed and Intel tells us that they will be #2 by Q1’24. We all know how they will accomplish this, something we discussed in detail recently here Intel Planning On Pulling A Samsung.

That post shared our analysis of Intel’s Internal Foundry Model Investor Webinar, held on June 21 last. It was hosted by CFO David Zinsner and Jason Grebe, GM of the Corporate Planning Group. Given the topic, one would have expected Stuart Pann, Intel’s foundry chief, appointed last March to have been in attendance, but curiously, this was not the case. We previously covered his appointment and its implications in some detail here Intel Foundry Chief Announcement Spells Trouble For The Tower Semi Acquisition.

Last week, Mr. Pann was the Intel executive assigned to the Goldman Sachs technology conference and we finally got to hear directly from him about his plans for Intel’s foundry gambit. Some of what he had to say was quite surprising. Let’s dig in…