Intel and Arm join forces with the intent of toppling Samsung

In the near future, it’s possible that your next phone could be running on a chip made by Intel and Arm. The two have joined forces to work on low-power compute system-on-chips (SoC).

Today, Intel published an announcement revealing that Intel Foundry Services (IFS) has partnered with Arm to build low-power compute SoCs on the Intel 18A process. The Intel 18A process is a plan to introduce five increasingly advanced semiconductor manufacturing process technologies in five years. Developing chips using this process will have plants in both the US and EU manufacturing chips.

The partnership will first focus on mobile SoC designs, but could eventually expand into automotive, Internet of Things (IoT), data center, aerospace, and government applications.

The CEO of Intel Corporation, Pat Gelsinger, had this to say about the partnership:

There is growing demand for computing power driven by the digitization of everything, but until now fabless customers have had limited options for designing around the most advanced mobile technology. Intel’s collaboration with Arm will expand the market opportunity for IFS and open up new options and approaches for any fabless company that wants to access best-in-class CPU IP and the power of an open system foundry with leading-edge process technology.

According to Windows Central, the goal of IFS is to become the second-largest foundry in the world by revenue. At the moment, Samsung sits in the number two spot, right behind TSMC. So IFS would have to knock Samsung down a rung to achieve its plan. But this will require Intel to work together with several large companies, not just Arm.