A report by The Information claims that the world’s biggest chipmaker is considering adding memory back into its portfolio, starting with next-generation 3D DRAM.
With demand still outpacing supply and prices sky-high, the outlet says it could compete with memory giants Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynix to develop and produce 3D DRAM technology that stacks chips vertically for increased bandwidth, capacity, and power efficiency.
[Link: TSMC Weighs Making Advanced Memory Chips to Capture More AI Spending | https://www.theinformation.com/articles/tsmc-weighs-making-advanced-memory-chips-capture-ai-spending?rc=v4bmzs | The Information]
Intel already has fabs. Ram is currently 3x more expensive per unit area than high end CPU’s. So just like Samsung make ram and ARM cpus at the same fabs, Intel could have some of its foundary make dram for 3x the profit of CPUs.
There’s no point in making so many CPU’s when there’s no DRAM to go with them.
Those fabs would need to be retooled. So intel spends billions, butchers their ability to fabricate their core product line, and all so that they can now fabricate a deprecating asset. By the time they got up and running ram prices would be about to drop significantly as 2028 has Samsung, micron, and sk Hynix all opening expanded fabrication capacity. Not to mention if the 3 main ram manufacturers take ~2 years to get additional capacity online god only knows how long it would take for someone who hasn’t fucked with dram manufacturing since like the 80s