From the quoted tweet in the article: "I said that ICL should be taken to 14nm++, everybody looked at me like I was the craziest guy on the block, it was just in case".
Imagine if Intel were two companies, Intel Design and Intel Manufacturing. This wouldn't have arisen - Intel Design would have produced the new ICL design and could have worked with Intel Manufacturing and TSMC on how to build it, ultimately using TSMC if IM couldn't make it.
I suspect you may have hit on Intel's eventual fate. The company may indeed split up into a design unit and a manufacturing unit. That might unlock significant shareholder value.
It would take many years since the spinoff that significant players would be comfortable enough to manufacture their designs with "Intel Foundry" since they known damn well there would be several hot-lines between Intel Foundry and Intel Designs.
The same was said of Microsoft, as Office was held back by the need to always be in lock step with Windows.
Microsoft got past that problem, and I’m sure Intel will too. Like 1990-2010 intel, the foundry companies have been able to hide a lot of their warts through growth. IMO, the smartphone revolution will peak much more quickly than PCs, and Intel competitors will gave their own life threatening challenges.
I agree. Performance in cellphone processors will peak even faster than the PC. And the semiconductor industry as a whole either becomes a commodity industry (like electricity) or they have to discover new technologies.
Imagine if Intel were two companies, Intel Design and Intel Manufacturing. This wouldn't have arisen - Intel Design would have produced the new ICL design and could have worked with Intel Manufacturing and TSMC on how to build it, ultimately using TSMC if IM couldn't make it.