Intel acquisition of Altera not expected to hurt TSMC: analysts

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/03/29
By: Jackson Chang and Ted Chen

Taipei, March 29 (CNA) Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chip maker, will likely not be affected by Intel Corp.’s rumored acquisition of chip making partner Altera Corp., industry analysts said Sunday.

Analysts familiar with Taiwan’s semiconductor sector said that because Altera has already shifted most of its orders to Intel from TSMC, the deal would not affect the bellwether Taiwanese company significantly.

TSMC already lost the business two years ago in 2013 when Altera, one of the world’s leading designers of field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), agreed to have Intel fabricate its 14-nanometer wafers and FPGA chips, industry insiders said.     [FULL  STORY]