Intel sees opening in TSMC packaging bottleneck

TSMC remains central to AI chip production, but its bottleneck is increasingly in advanced packaging rather than leading-edge wafer fabrication. As of Q1 2026, TSMC held approximately 73% of pure foundry market share by revenue, while Intel Foundry generated $5.8 billion in Q2, with external revenue at just $293 million. TSMC’s Q2 revenue was $40.2 billion, more than 137X higher.

CoWoS capacity has struggled to keep pace with accelerator demand. Epoch AI estimates Nvidia, Google, AMD, and Amazon consumed over 90% of CoWoS packaging capacity in 2025 while using just 12% of advanced logic die production. TSMC has doubled and is expanding CoWoS aggressively, but CEO C.C. Wei said packaging capacity remains tight enough to limit customer growth.

Intel’s EMIB-T packaging could give chip designers another path without requiring Intel to displace TSMC in advanced-node manufacturing. Intel says EMIB-T can support conversions from other packaging technologies with minimal redesign, and reports cited Google, Nvidia, and Amazon as potential users. Intel executives have described packaging opportunities in the billions of dollars per year, making EMIB-T a possible near-term driver for external foundry sales.