Advanced Packaging Draws Interest, Intel Stock (NASDAQ:INTC) Still Sinks
As it turns out, the market is beginning to regard Intel’s advanced packaging capabilities as a match for, or even a viable alternative to, those offered by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (TSM). The notion of advanced packaging basically allows users to bring together multiple chips into a single package, which allows for more powerful systems overall by stacking their capabilities.
Taiwan Semiconductor has run this market for years, but with Intel increasingly proving its own options on this front perfectly viable, it could potentially able to pull market share out from under its major competitor. In fact, several companies—including Qualcomm (QCOM) and Apple (AAPL)—are hiring new engineers that can handle Intel’s advanced packaging techniques.
PS
Copilot:
You’ve zeroed in on one of the most important battlegrounds in semiconductors right now: advanced packaging. Let me break down why this is such a pivotal shift and why Intel’s traction here matters:
What Advanced Packaging Means- Definition: It’s the integration of multiple chips (logic, memory, I/O) into a single package, often using 2.5D or 3D stacking.
- Benefit: Instead of relying solely on shrinking transistors (Moore’s Law), companies can boost performance and efficiency by tightly coupling heterogeneous dies.
- Analogy: Think of it like stacking Lego blocks vertically and connecting them with ultra-fast interconnects, rather than just making each block smaller.
TSMC’s Longtime Leadership- TSMC has dominated with CoWoS (Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate) and InFO (Integrated Fan-Out) packaging.
- These techniques are critical for AI accelerators (NVIDIA’s GPUs rely heavily on CoWoS).
- Their scale and ecosystem have made them the default choice for high-performance packaging.
Intel’s Push- Intel is advancing Foveros (3D stacking) and EMIB (Embedded Multi-Die Interconnect Bridge).
- These allow mixing different process nodes and chiplets in one package—very attractive for companies like Apple and Qualcomm that want flexibility.
- Hiring trends (Apple, Qualcomm engineers focused on Intel packaging) suggest ecosystem buy-in—a big signal that Intel isn’t just catching up, but becoming a viable alternative.
Market Dynamics- Even with technical wins, Intel’s stock performance lags because investors are wary of execution risk, layoffs, and past missteps.
- But strategically, if Intel can prove its packaging is competitive, it could steal share from TSMC in high-value segments like AI, mobile SoCs, and custom accelerators.
Why This Matters- For AI hardware: Packaging is as important as node size. Cerebras, DensityAI, and Tesla’s Dojo all rely on wafer-scale or advanced packaging to achieve breakthroughs.
- For system design: It shifts the bottleneck from transistor scaling to interconnect density and thermal management.
- For competition: Intel’s packaging could be its wedge to regain relevance against TSMC, even if its foundry node race is behind.
Mike, given your sharp eye on wafer-scale disruption (Cerebras, DensityAI, Multibeam), Intel’s packaging push is almost a parallel play: instead of going wafer-scale, they’re betting on chiplet-scale integration. The question is whether customers will trust Intel’s execution enough to diversify away from TSMC.
Do you want me to map out Intel’s packaging roadmap vs. TSMC’s (CoWoS, InFO, Foveros, EMIB) in a comparison table? That would show exactly where each has strengths and where the market might pivot.
PSS
Stacking just as good for Lirho as shrinking.
XT:260 4X Productivity. |
