TSMC denies reports of joint venture with Intel as US pushes for domestic chip solutions

In brief: TSMC has officially denied the long-running claim that it is considering entering into a joint venture with Intel. It was recently reported that the two tech giants had reached a preliminary agreement on the plan, which has been pushed by the Trump administration in the hope of helping Intel address its current manufacturing crisis.

Speaking during the company's earnings call on Wednesday, TSMC CEO C.C. Wei said, "TSMC is not engaged in any discussion with other companies regarding any joint venture, technology licensing or technology."

It was reported in March that TSMC had proposed a joint venture that would see it take a stake in Intel's foundry business alongside Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom, and Qualcomm. The proposal supposedly involved TSMC running Intel's foundry division operations, but it would not own more than 50% as the Trump administration does not want either Intel or its foundry business to be entirely foreign-owned.

According to The Information, TSMC and Intel reached a preliminary agreement this month on a plan that would see the Taiwanese firm take a 21% stake in a new joint venture. Two weeks earlier, Nvidia boss Jensen Huang said he was never approached by a consortium about investing in the JV. A TSMC board member also denied there had been any discussions.

TSMC announced in March that it would be investing an additional $100 billion in US chip manufacturing, bringing its total to $165 billion – the largest foreign investment in US history. It said the money would go toward building new chip facilities and an R&D center, creating 40,000 construction jobs and tens of thousands of "high-paying, high-tech jobs" over the coming years.

"We must be able to build the chips and semiconductors that we need right here," said President Trump at the time. "It's a matter of national security for us."

The US government keeps pushing for a deal between Intel and TSMC. The White House has reportedly been examining contingency plans in the event of Intel's fortunes worsening. The company's foundry division reported a loss of over $13 billion on $17.5 billion in revenue in 2024. Overall net loss for the year stood at $18.8 billion, its first annual loss since 1986.

Elsewhere in its earnings call, TSMC raised revenue guidance for the current second quarter by $1.6 billion. The company earned $25.77 billion in revenue in Q1 2025, beating expectations of $25.72 billion. It predicts revenue of between $28.4 billion and $29.2 billion in Q2.

The world's largest contract chipmaker also revealed the yields at its Arizona fab are now comparable to those in Taiwan.