SANTA CLARA, CA—Intel Corp. and Tower Semiconductor, a leading foundry for analog semiconductors, have announced an agreement under which Intel will acquire Tower for approximately $5.4 billion. The acquisition significantly advances Intel’s IDM 2.0 strategy as the company further expands its manufacturing capacity, global footprint and technology portfolio to address unprecedented industry demand.

A key part of Intel's strategy was establishing Intel Foundry Services (IFS) in March 2021 to help meet the growing global demand for semiconductor manufacturing capacity and to become a major provider of U.S.- and Europe-based foundry capacity to serve customers globally. IFS currently offers committed capacity in the U.S. and Europe and other geographies in the future, along with a broad intellectual property (IP) portfolio.

Tower’s expertise in specialty technologies, such as radio frequency power, silicon-germanium and industrial sensors, extensive IP and electronic design automation (EDA) partnerships, and established foundry footprint will provide broad coverage to both Intel and Tower’s customers globally.The company serves high-growth markets such as mobile, automotive and power. It operates a geographically complementary foundry presence with facilities in the U.S. and Asia serving fabless companies as well as IDMs and offers more than 2 million wafer starts per year of capacity–including growth opportunities in Texas, Israel, Italy and Japan.

“We are thrilled to welcome the Tower team to Intel," says Dr. Randhir Thakur, president of IFS. "Their decades of foundry experience, deep customer relationships and technology offerings will accelerate [our] growth and be a customer-first technology innovator with the broadest range of IP, services and capacity.”

Intel offers both research and development and manufacturing in the United States, including recently announced capacity expansions in Arizona and New Mexico, as well as plans to build a new mega-site in Ohio.