Intel has officially qualified for as much as $3.5 billion in federal grants to make semiconductors for the Pentagon, according to people familiar with the matter, after the chipmaker reached a binding agreement with US officials.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger and key executives are expected to present a plan later this month to the company's board of directors to slice off unnecessary businesses and revamp capital spending, according to a source familiar with the matter, as they try to revive the once-dominant chipmaker's fortunes.

China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel and AMD from government personal computers and servers.

US chipmakers Intel and Micron are likely to win the largest share of the US$52 billion in CHIPS Act awards this year, analysts told EE Times. With the US 2024 presidential election approaching, the awards will help President Joe Biden show that he's creating jobs and returning semiconductor manufacturing to the nation following a long history of offshoring, the analysts said.

Intel's fab near Magdeburg, Germany, will not only be the most advanced semiconductor production facility in Europe, but, according to CEO Pat Gelsinger, the most advanced fab in the world when it comes online. The fab will process wafers using post-18A process technologies and will be used to make products both for Intel as well as its Intel Foundry Services customers.

British chip designer Arm, backed by SoftBank, is in talks with potential strategic investors including Intel to anchor what will be one of the largest initial public offerings of the year, according to people familiar with the matter.

The ecosystem for commercial chiplets-one where a marketplace of chiplets from many vendors can be incorporated into a multichip SoC by multiple packaging vendors with mix-and-match ease-has yet to appear.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger sees the first signs of a turnaround in the company's business during his nearly two years at the helm of the top US chipmaker, he said yesterday. Analysts contacted by EE Times were less optimistic.

Also, Tan said he was considering Intel as a potential new foundry partner, as an alternative to its main supplier, Taiwan-based TSMC.

Intel reported a fourth-quarter loss, hurt by a souring market for its chips and growing competition from rivals, as it also issued a gloomy outlook for the current quarter.

The company's move is in sharp contrast to those of its rivals such as TSMC, Intel, Micron Technology, and SK Hynix, which all declared a reduction of their investments.

Global economic turbulence has hit technology companies this year, leading to slowing revenue growth and widespread layoffs, even as some segments of enterprise spending on IT seem to be holding steady.

CEO Pat Gelsinger told employees that Thakur will continue lead Intel's foundry unit through the first quarter of 2023 to ensure 'a smooth transition.'

Intel is planning on announcing "targeted" layoffs in November, according to a report late Thursday, citing an internal video shared with employees.

The US Department of Defense (DoD) is Intel Foundry Services' (IFS's) "No. 1" customer, IFS president Randhir Thakur told EE Times, noting that IFS plans to be part of the DoD state-of-the-art heterogeneous integrated packaging (SHIP) program. That program will necessitate deep knowledge of gate-all-around (GAA) technology facilitating high-transistor-density 3D chips.

Mario Draghi's outgoing government and Intel have picked the town of Vigasio in the northeastern Veneto region as their preferred site for a new multibillion-euro chip factory in Italy, two people familiar with the matter said.

Intel first debuted the Pentium brand name almost 30 years ago, and the Celeron range of CPUs about 25 years ago. Since the rise of the Core series in 2006, they've both been assigned to low-cost budget CPUs, often featured on budget laptops and desktops. As of 2023, they're both disappearing: Intel's low-end laptop offerings will simply be labeled "Intel Processor" with a new iteration of the Intel Inside logo.

Italy is close to clinching a deal initially worth $5 billion with Intel to build an advanced semiconductor packaging and assembly plant in the country, two sources briefed on discussions told Reuters on Thursday.

Intel has informed customers it will raise prices on a majority of its microprocessors and peripheral chip products later this year, citing rising costs, Nikkei Asia learned.

Intel today announced that its board of directors has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.365 per share ($1.46 per share on an annual basis) on the company's common stock. The dividend will be payable on Sept. 1, 2022, to stockholders of record on Aug. 7, 2022.

When the Senate passed a rare bipartisan measure last summer to spend US$52 billion subsidizing computer chip manufacturing and research in the United States, it seemed like an easy legislative priority for both parties. But one year later, the funding still isn't signed into law.

Intel has frozen hiring in the division responsible for PC desktop and laptop chips, according to a memo reviewed by Reuters, as part of a series of cost-cutting measures.

It is unclear if the talks addressed a particular issue, or just represented the heads of the world's top two chipmakers getting together for a chat while Gelsinger was in town.

Lockheed Martin has joined Intel, Nvidia, and eight other big tech companies as part of a plan to securely link defense systems in what Lockheed calls a 21st century concept.

TSMC said it won't start production at its 2nm node until the second half of 2025 or possibly the end of that year, which could signal a shift in the competitive landscape.

The company pledged to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in its global operations by 2040, to increase the energy efficiency and lower the carbon footprint of Intel products and platforms with specific goals, and to work with customers and industry partners to create solutions that lower the greenhouse gas footprint of the entire technology ecosystem.

"Intel continues to join the global community in condemning Russia's war against Ukraine and calling for a swift return to peace. Effective immediately, we have suspended all business operations in Russia. This follows our earlier decision to suspend all shipments to customers in Russia and Belarus," Intel said in a statement.

"They're interested in us using their foundries," said Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang regarding Intel, during a virtual press conference on Wednesday. "We're very interested in exploring it."

Italy plans to set aside more than EUR4 billion (US$4.6 billion) until 2030 to boost domestic chip manufacturing as it seeks to attract more investment from tech companies such as Intel, a draft decree seen by Reuters showed on Tuesday.

Intel is increasing its reliance on erstwhile rival TSMC in its attempt to boost sales and eventually regain dominance as the world leader in manufacturing scale and chip process technology.

Intel chief executive Pat Gelsinger said Intel would be interested in participating if a consortium emerges to own the British semiconductor and software design company Arm.

Intel is close to buying Israeli firm Tower Semiconductor for about US$6 billion, a source familiar with the matter said, as the US company looks to advance its strategy of contract manufacturing chips for other businesses.

China plans to set up a special organization that facilitates collaboration between domestic companies and overseas semiconductor powerhouses such as Intel to foster development hubs for software, material and manufacturing equipment.

On the call, Intel Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger told analysts that the company has "a lot of catching up to do" in building out capacity, or "shells," to address supply constraints.

Rob Crooke, CEO of Solidigm and a 10-year veteran of Intel's memory business, told CRN that while the memory business has been a profitable one for Intel, Intel realized that to get the scale needed to continue to serve customers' growing memory and SSD requirements required a huge investment in scale, and the SK Hynix had the scale necessary.

Intel has announced plans for an initial investment of more than US$20 billion in the construction of two new leading-edge chip factories in Ohio.

Zinsner started at Micron in February 2018 and is departing to join Intel as its CFO.

Today as part of CES 2022, Intel demonstrated advancements and momentum with Mobileye, progress toward discrete graphics leadership and the launch of the newest members of the 12th Gen Intel Core family. With these milestones, Intel furthers its commitment to enable the industry and its customers and partners to harness the technology superpowers - ubiquitous computing, cloud-to-edge infrastructure, pervasive connectivity and artificial intelligence - at the heart of the digital transformation.

Intel and Italy are intensifying talks over investments expected to be worth around 8 billion euros ($9 billion) to build an advanced semiconductor packaging plant, two sources close to the matter told Reuters.

South Korea's SK Hynix said on Wednesday it has received merger clearances from the Chinese antitrust authority for its acquisition of Intel's NAND memory chip business, clearing the way for the world's second-largest memory chip maker to completion of securing regulatory approvals from all eight countries.