Sources say that Intel CEO Kissinger visited TSMC for the third time in late May to restart 3nm cooperation.

CTOnews.com May 14, according to the Taiwan media "United Daily News" reported that chip giant Intel's CEO Pat Kissinger (Pat Gelsinger) will visit TSMC for the third time in late May to discuss the resumption of 3nm process cooperation and seek TSMC's foundry capacity support.

Kissinger is expected to attend his annual Intel Vision technical conference on May 21, according to people familiar with the matter. In addition to explaining Intel's latest blueprint, we will also discuss 3nm process cooperation with TSMC President Wei Zhe Jia and seek TSMC's wafer foundry capacity support. CTOnews.com previously reported that Kissinger visited TSMC twice in April and December 2022, but Kissinger's second visit was held at TSMC's Arizona wafer factory at the "first batch of machine equipment arrival" ceremony, so he was unable to meet with TSMC's top decision-makers.

In recent years, Intel has faced crises such as loss of market share, losses for two consecutive quarters, and delays in new processes, resulting in a great loss of confidence in the supply chain, and the 3nm production line of Zhuke Baoshan, which was originally customized for TSMC, has also been shelved, which is also the reason why TSMC's annual 3nm capacity has always been difficult to increase and capacity utilization is not as good as expected.

According to Intel's previous plan, the cooperation with TSMC in the 3nm process will be officially launched on the Arrow Lake processor to be released in the second half of 2024.