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It is not often that TSMC (TSM) takes cues from Intel (INTC), but that is undoubtedly what's happening. According to The Information, the world’s largest contract chipmaker is quietly building a new packaging technology modeled on Intel’s EMIB. TSMC’s own engineers are reportedly calling the project “EMIB-like” in-house. The company is developing it with a Taiwanese substrate maker, Kinsus Interconnect Technology. Following the report, TSMC’s U.S.-listed shares rose about 8%, while Intel climbed roughly 11% on July 30. For a company that usually defines the industry’s direction, TSMC borrowing ideas from Intel is worth a closer look.
The fight is all about how chips get packaged. TSMC’s main method, CoWoS, uses a large and expensive silicon layer to link chips together. Intel’s EMIB takes a leaner route, embedding tiny silicon bridges only where the chips actually connect. That makes it cheaper and potentially better suited to the increasingly large AI chip designs. The timing makes this sting more for the Taiwanese company. TSMC’s CoWoS is sold out into 2027, with some customers waiting well over a year. That backlog is pushing buyers to look for alternate suppliers, and Intel is ready. Its newest version, EMIB-T, recently hit a 98% yield rate, matching CoWoS in that metric, and has already drawn interest from Google (GOOG) (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), and Nvidia (NVDA). Every customer who leaves over the wait chips away at TSMC’s lead.
