TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Industry sources said TSMC proposed to Nvidia, AMD, and Broadcom about taking stakes in a joint venture that would see it operate Intel’s chipmaking fabs, Reuters reported Wednesday.

Sources said the pitch was made to potential backers before US President Donald Trump and TSMC’s NT$3.29 trillion (US$100 billion) announcement on March 3 that called for three more chip fabs, two advanced packaging facilities, and an R&D center in Arizona.

According to the proposal, TSMC would be running Intel’s foundry division, but it would not own more than a 50% stake, sources explained.

Intel, TSMC, Nvidia, AMD and Qualcomm declined to comment about the proposal, per Reuters. The White House and Broadcom did not respond to requests for comment either.

Intel, arguably the US’ most important chipmaker, is now smaller than Qualcomm, AMD, and Texas Instruments by market cap, per CNBC. The company’s Q4 revenue last year was US$14.26 billion, down 7% year-over-year.

Intel has made several missteps in the past couple of decades. In 2007, under CEO Paul Otellini, the company declined a deal with Apple to produce mobile processors for the iPhone.

Apple instead chose ARM, which now dominates the mobile market. The Cupertino-based company also placed huge orders with TSMC to make its smartphone chips, starting with the A8 in 2014.

Intel also failed to ride the AI wave. It did not have any competitor to Nvidia’s powerful GPUs, which are also made by TSMC. Due to parallel processing, GPUs are generally better than CPUs for machine learning.

Pat Gelsinger, who had worked for Intel for 30 years, returned as CEO on Feb. 15, 2021, but failed to deliver on his promise to turn the struggling giant around. The board became frustrated with Intel’s weak market share and saw its foundry expansion as a diversion from its mission to design advanced silicon.

Under pressure, Gelsinger stepped down as CEO and from the company’s board of directors on Dec. 1, with CFO David Zinser and then Executive Vice President Michelle Johnston Holtus replacing him as interim co-CEOs.

However, any deals between TSMC and Intel would be costly and require lengthy talks, the report said. The companies use vastly different manufacturing processes, chemicals, and tools.

Additionally, the White House said the Trump administration would support foreign companies investing and building in the US, but is unlikely to allow a foreign firm to fully operate Intel’s factories, Reuters reported on Feb. 15.