Intel partners with TSMC to produce its 6nm Ponte Vecchio Xe-based GPUs, outsourcing advanced semiconductor manufacturing.

During its Q2 2020 earnings call, Intel indicated it was exploring opportunities to contract out work to third-party foundries to help maintain its roadmap. The most logical choice for such partnerships would be TSMC, which already manufactures chips for AMD, NVIDIA, Apple, and numerous other prominent technology companies.

According to a report from China Times, Intel plans to do exactly that with its upcoming Ponte Vecchio GPU. Since Ponte Vecchio is less mission-critical than Intel's core CPU business, outsourcing its production to a third-party foundry like TSMC represents a logical strategy. The chip would be built on TSMC's 6nm process node, a value-oriented middle ground between the company's mature 7nm lines and its newer 5nm lines, which have been allocated to produce Apple's upcoming A14 Bionic SoC. TSMC's 6nm mass production is on track to commence later that year, with transistor density at this node roughly equivalent to TSMC's 7nm offerings.

Intel has reportedly reserved capacity for 180,000 wafers for 2021 for Ponte Vecchio production. The China Times report notes that TSMC's production capacity is fully booked through at least the first half of 2021, indicating strong demand across the foundry's customer base.

Ponte Vecchio is based on Intel's next-generation Xe-HPC graphics architecture and is targeted squarely at the data center market, positioning it as a key component of Intel's broader strategy to compete in the growing AI and high-performance computing segments.