On July 8, according to DIGITIMES, sources said that Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger may visit TSMC in August to discuss cooperation on the 3nm process. That's because Intel's upcoming "Meteor Lake" CPUs have been rescheduled to start shipping in late 2023.

Intel is sticking to its original blueprint for its 14th Gen Core Meteor Lake CPUs, which will use Intel 4 compute units (tiles), TSMC 3nm GPU units, and TSMC N5/N4 SoC-LP units, the report said.

Meteor Lake CPUs may not start shipping until the end of 2023 as Intel realigns its manufacturing roadmap and capacity planning for the coming year, the sources noted. Previously, its scheduled release time was set for the first half of this year.

TSMC was supposed to start 3nm chip production for graphics units inside Meteor Lake by the end of this year, but Intel's rescheduling of the CPU's release could disrupt TSMC's 3nm process output plans, the sources said.

The sources believe that Intel will be one of the initial customers of TSMC's 3nm process technology along with Apple. Among them, Intel's 3nm chip orders are also important, because TSMC has decided to convert the P8 and P9 facilities of its new Gigafab 12 to 3nm process manufacturing, exclusively for Intel.

In addition, there are also rumors that Intel is still considering the feasibility of switching to TSMC's 5nm or 3nm process platform to manufacture Meteor Lake computing units so that it can launch CPUs on time.

Intel recently reiterated that Intel 4 (officially known as the Intel 7nm process) is on track for volume production in the second half of 2022. As Intel's first process to use EUV, Intel 4 will be used in products including Meteor Lake, which will be released in 2023, the chip supplier said.