Intel is reportedly in talks to start producing chips for automotive companies within the next six to nine months in an effort to help to alleviate the shortage that is currently wreaking havoc on the industry.
In a recent interview with Reuters, Intel Group CEO Pat Gelsinger said the company is already in talks with key stakeholders to make it happen.
“We’re hoping that some of these things can be alleviated, not requiring a three- or four-year factory build, but maybe six months of new products being certified on some of our existing processes,” Gelsinger told Reuters.
“We’ve begun those engagements already with some of the key components suppliers.”
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Although Gelsinger didn’t name specific component suppliers, he asserted that the work could be done in a number of Intel’s factories in Oregon, Arizona or New Mexico, or abroad in Israel or Ireland.
The move is part of Intel’s latest business venture – Intel Foundry Services – which was announced last month as a “standalone foundry business unit.”
In addition to producing chips for external clients in an effort to both alleviate – and capitalise on the global chip shortage, Intel will also invest a whopping $US20 billion into expanding their manufacturing sites in order to keep up with the growing demand.
The move comes as the global semiconductor shortage has grown so dire that US President Joe Biden had to organise a “CEO Summit on Semiconductor and Supply Chain Resilience” meeting with executives from the likes of Intel, Google, GM, Ford and Dell to work out how heck they’re going to fix it.
“We’ve been falling behind on research and development and manufacturing, and, to put it bluntly, we have to step up our game,” Biden said at the meeting on Monday.