Locator: 50455INTC.
I was confused why Elon Musk would partner with Intel. For me, this was completely counterintuitive, but Elon Musk has a habit of being counterintuitive. No details of the partnership between Intel and TeraFab were publicly revealed in the sources I could find. My hunch: Elon Musk's 30-year strategy is not to buy processors (GPUs, CPUS, or TPUs) from another source but rather to make its own fabs.
One can conjecture until the cows come home and one can do their own sleuthing.
For example -- connect these three dots (it's not difficult): Elon Musk -- Donald Trump -- Intel. We'll do that later.
For now, I have enough details now to pay close attention to what happens next but the Musk-Trump-Intel connection is huge. In the meantime, for an investor, this information is invaluable. But ... but .... but .... there is one last question I needed to ask. See below the fold below (the asterisks).
This conversation applies only to GPUs, CPUs, and TPUs, the primary (only) blades that are the operating units for AI. This can be confusing; content and typographical errors likely.
It does not apply to storage so the mention of Micron below can be disregarded. Similarly, TI and Samsung can be disregarded within the "confines" of my three queries.
I'll post the three AI prompts in the opposite order in which they were asked. The first AI, therefore, is the most important for this discussion.
Third AI prompt and reply:
Among US companies or companies with major fabs in the US, have we come down to only three: TSMC, Intel, and Global Foundries?
Second AI prompt and reply:
Of the companies mentioned (Nvidia, AMD, Intel, Google, Meta, Broadcom, and startups like Cerebras and Groq), which of those companies have their own FABs?
I'm not sure whether that statement with regard to Broadcom is accurate. Other sources suggest that Broadcom has no fabs and relies on TSMC.
First AI prompt and reply:
With the just announced partnership of Intel and Elon Musk's TeraFab in Austin, Texas, it appears the three top competitors for GPUs / CPUs / TPUs are Nvidia, AMD, and Intel. Amazon and Apple remain dependent on in-house CPUs and TPUs. Others that I might be forgetting?
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The Usual Suspect
One Last Query
AI query: Which Fab is primarily responsible for providing chips for all of Elon Musk's activities?
Reply:
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Packaging
A separate but related issue with regard to fabrication.
Once chips are made, they are then "packaged" but that requires a second step, a second process. Most "packaging" is done where the chips are manufactured, e.g., TSMC.
Nvidia has pretty much monopolized the "packaging" capacity of TSMC in the United States so to finish the process, Nvidia chips are sent to TSMC in Taiwan to complete the process. TSMC will be building "packaging facilities in Phoenix alongside the fabrication facilities going forward.
AI query: Does Intel only do fabricating of the chips they make, or do they also any "packaging" that might be required?
More and more it appears that Intel will rise (and surpass) its former glory.
Elon Musk partnering with Intel speaks volumes. It will take awhile, but the future looks incredibly bright for Intel.
