On Tuesday, Intel (INTC.O) said it had agreed with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (2330. TW) to sell about ten percent of its share in the IMS Nanofabrication business.
IMS is estimated to be worth around $4.3 billion after the purchase. The deal is anticipated to be finalized during the fourth quarter of this year. Intel will retain a majority ownership stake in IMS.
“We believe also that the investment by TSMC demonstrates the excitement across the whole semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem for the significant opportunity ahead of IMS,” said Matt Poirier, vice president of corporate development for Intel. “The investment by TSMC demonstrates”
Intel is now establishing Intel Foundry Services, a contract manufacturing firm that will compete with TSMC. However, according to Elmar Platzgummer, CEO of IMS, TSMC has been a long-term partner of the firm since roughly 2011 or 2012 and depends on the technology that the company develops.
At the beginning of this year, Intel completed a sale of a 20% share in IMS to Bain Capital at the same price.
In 2015, Intel completed the acquisition of IMS. The chip manufacturing component known as a mask is something that the Austrian firm produces. This component is required for the next generation of lithography equipment. Severe ultraviolet manufacturing equipment with a “high-NA” designation is required to produce quicker chips.
“As the industry transitioned to EUV, there was only one technical solution left over to do the mask writing,” Platzgummer said, “and a mask is an essential component for the production of chips.”
