Chipmaker Intel Reports $7 Billion Operating Loss

(CTN News) – Chipmaker Intel reported deepening operating losses for its foundry business on Tuesday, a blow to its efforts to regain the technological lead it lost to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing in recent years.

This year’s operating losses for Intel’s manufacturing division were $7 billion, compared with $5.2 billion the previous year. For 2023, the unit generated $18.9 billion in revenue, down 31% from $27.49 billion in 2018.

Shares of Intel were down 4.3% following the filing of the documents with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

According to Pat Gelsinger, Chief Executive Officer of the company, 2024 will be the year of the company’s worst operating losses and break even on an operating basis by about 2027.

In addition, Gelsinger reported that the foundry business had been weakened by bad decisions, including the decision made one year ago not to use extreme ultraviolet (EUV) machines manufactured by the Dutch firm ASML.

The cost of these machines can exceed $150 million, but they are more cost-effective than earlier techniques for manufacturing chips.

Intel has contracted out about 30% of the total number of wafers to external contract manufacturers, including TSMC, in part because of the missteps. This project aims to reduce that number to approximately 20%.

Intel has now switched over to EUV tools, which will cover a growing number of production needs as older machines are retired.

Gelsinger commented that “in the post-EUV era, we see that we are very competitive now in terms of price, performance, and back to our leadership position.” In the pre-EUV era, we incurred significant costs and were not competitive.

The company plans to invest $100 billion in the construction or expansion of chip factories in four states in the United States. A significant part of its business turnaround plan relies on persuading outside companies to use its manufacturing services.

It was announced that Intel would begin reporting the results of its manufacturing operations as a separate unit as part of this plan. TSMC and Samsung Electronics, its primary competitors in the chipmaking industry, have been investing heavily to catch up with the company.

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