I guess Tom must have regretted selling Fab10 to OnSemi
With the chip crunch , every fab capacity is now gold …
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to @OP - "I guess Tom must have regretted selling Fab10 to OnSemi. With the chip crunch ,every fab capacity is now gold"
Another way to look:
- Collecting $1.5B for IBM assets as a down-payment for 10nm Power Family SoC
- immediately selling F10 to ONSemi and Avera to Marvell at Net profit of another $1B.
What to regret about?
An IBM lawsuit pending (IBM wants their money back plus punitive) - the race is up to exercise IPO package while the jury is still out. What happens after - why would he regret about it?
It's a sad story for many.
You all forget one thing they need to have money for all of this to happen. The whole reason for IPO was to generate cash and then came the great resignation and on top of it get people from all around and try to keep money and try to increase capacity. Now the problem is what do they prioritize?
Fab 10 tooling is old and in disrepair. On a good day now, it can handle 100 wafer starts. IBM essentially gave GF that Fab. IBM culture and operational methods are imbedded there. It's not like the 600 and 300 buildings back in the day or even ASTC. It's not setup for foundry work or heavy production. Its a whole lot of development tools that have been beat to death. They rely heavily on vendor maintenance support.
FAB10 has old equipment. The better bet was to sell FAB10 and build 8.2 in anticipation of chip need. The need is here. The IPO is done. But still no 8.2.
During this delay TSMC has entered USA..
I have wondered this myself too….like ibm too?? Did they not see this coming? Chip shortage and revenue to be had…. I mean it basically can churn out money… they must have seen this unfolding on the horizon despite Covid ….did their business people not forecast or see this???