TSMC CEO C.C. Wei Throws Subtle Shade at Intel While Calling It a ‘Very Good Customer’

TSMC CEO C.C. Wei has once again proven that confidence can be sharper than competition. During the company’s Q3 earnings call, Wei addressed the growing buzz around Intel’s comeback in the foundry market – particularly after NVIDIA and other major U.S. clients poured investments into Team Blue. But instead of defensiveness, Wei responded with a quiet smirk of dominance.

“That competitor happens to be our very good customer,” he said, hinting at the complex relationship between two semiconductor titans who now share both rivalry and reliance.

Wei’s statement wasn’t just witty banter – it reflected TSMC’s overwhelming control over the global semiconductor landscape. Intel, despite its bold ambitions with its Foundry Services and next-gen nodes like Intel 18A, still depends heavily on TSMC for manufacturing some of its most advanced chips. Even flagship projects such as Nova Lake are reportedly tied to the Taiwanese firm’s production lines. The irony? The very company trying to dethrone TSMC must first rely on it to survive.

At the heart of this drama is the question: Can Intel realistically challenge TSMC? Right now, the answer seems distant. Intel’s foundry arm faces enormous challenges – building advanced process technologies, catching up with 3nm-class manufacturing, and establishing capacity that can rival TSMC’s decades-long head start. Meanwhile, TSMC has built a fortress around its ecosystem. From wafer production and chip packaging to testing, validation, and even mask making, the company controls nearly every critical stage of semiconductor production. That vertical integration gives TSMC a massive moat – not only in performance but also in logistics, reliability, and global trust.

Wei’s subtle jab was a masterclass in leadership confidence. Rather than reacting to the hype around Intel’s revival, he reaffirmed that TSMC’s future lies in evolution, not reaction. Initiatives such as Foundry 2.0 underscore the company’s efforts to innovate beyond traditional chip fabrication – focusing on packaging technologies and customer co-design partnerships that cement long-term loyalty. This makes it increasingly difficult for companies to switch suppliers, even if Intel’s foundries eventually become competitive.

That’s not to say TSMC is invincible. The firm faces capacity constraints, rising U.S. manufacturing costs, and intensifying geopolitical pressure. However, its dominance in the high-end chip market, serving giants like Apple, AMD, and NVIDIA, keeps it at the center of every silicon strategy. Intel may roar about independence, but for now, it remains both a customer and a competitor – an unusual situation that perfectly captures the semiconductor industry’s paradox: collaboration wrapped in competition.

As Wei’s calm delivery suggested, TSMC isn’t losing sleep over Intel’s ambitions. If anything, it’s enjoying the irony – watching a once-great rival slowly buy wafers from the very foundry it hopes to replace. In the semiconductor world, power doesn’t just come from technology; it comes from who others depend on. And right now, almost everyone depends on TSMC.