On June 20, according to Tom's Hardware, sources pointed out that Intel did have discussions with Samsung on chip production, but the discussion was only on the lower-end chipset foundry, and the specific process was not disclosed.

Recently, according to Sedialy, in order to alleviate the shortage of CPU out of stock, Intel has opened discussions with Samsung on the first time of CPU OEM. According to reports, Samsung has officially agreed to use the 14nm process for Intel's "RocketLake" micro-architecture CPU, which will be released in 2021.

Sources pointed out that Intel and Samsung are negotiating, but the center of the negotiations is a lower-end product, which is likely to be a chipset that is easier to outsource. Given Intel's re-use of the 22nm process last year due to insufficient 14nm capacity, it is likely that Samsung will use the 22nm process for Intel foundry chipsets.

It is worth mentioning that the transistor density of the Intel 14nm++ process is higher than that of Samsung and TSMC.

Intel produces one chipset per processor, so small chips account for a large portion of the company's wafer output and packaging and test capacity, so outsourcing chipset production to Samsung will be a good choice. This approach also enables Intel to focus its production capabilities on high-margin products. In addition, outsourcing the chipset to South Korea's Samsung factory can also avoid the increased tariffs in the Sino-US trade war.

In December 2017, Intel publicly expressed its willingness to use third-party foundries in the future: "In addition to expanding Intel's own manufacturing capabilities, we will continue to selectively use foundries for certain technologies that are meaningful to the business. For decades, the use of foundries has been Intel's practice." At the investor conference last month, Intel reiterated this information.