TSMC Sends CoWoS Packaging Work to Rival Intel's Malaysia Plant
TSMC has moved part of its CoWoS advanced-packaging back-end work to rival Intel's Malaysia plant, with SemiAnalysis export data showing about $1.3 billion of high-bandwidth memory redirected from Taiwan to Malaysia — a break with industry practice driven by CoWoS lead times of 52 to 78 weeks that push new orders past mid-2028. Chairman C.C. Wei told June shareholders that this year's CoWoS-based AI accelerator output is fully sold out, so the packaging bottleneck, not wafer capacity, is now what rations AI chip supply. Intel's EMIB-T, at roughly half the cost of CoWoS, reaches mass production next year, giving the packaging rival a paid foothold inside its competitor's supply chain.
Source: en.sedaily.com ↗
This year's planned production of AI accelerator chips using CoWoS was fully sold out.
Why this matters
- → TSMC's packaging bottleneck now rations AI chip supply, not fab capacity
- → 52–78 week lead times force new orders past mid-2028; outsourcing to Intel breaks with industry norms
- → Intel's cheaper EMIB-T technology gains production foothold inside its largest competitor