Intel's new CEO, Pat Gelsinger, announced plans to transform Intel into a world leader in silicon manufacturing. Intel will not only focus on producing its own chips, but will also use its own factories to produce chips for other companies. This is because Intel sees the silicon manufacturing market as being worth $100 billion by 2025.

Given the current demand for silicon, the offer of fab space by a major company like Intel to a fabless company is attractive to traditional competitors like AMD and Nvidia. If things go as Intel intends, the next AMD CPU will be manufactured by Intel, and the next Nvidia graphics card may be manufactured by Intel as well. But that possibility is still a long way off.

Intel is also playing politics here, eagerly pointing out that much of the world's silicon is currently produced in Asia. According to Intel's figures, 80% of silicon is produced in Asia, 15% in the US, and only 5% in Europe.

Intel is trying to change this composition and already has factories in the US, Ireland, and Israel. The current reliance on production in Asia is not necessarily favorable for a technology that is at the core of national security. Expanding the manufacturing base out of Asia would give governments options that would be unthinkable today.

Intel has already announced plans to expand its Octorio campus in Chandler, Arizona, to build two new fabs; the upgrade to Fab 42 is a known $20 billion investment, and Pat Gelsinger has announced that the expansion will soon be suggested.

Intel also said it intends to use companies like TSMC, Samsung, and Global Foundries to meet its own manufacturing needs in the short term through 2023. This should help smooth out the manufacturing issues they faced leading up to 10nm and help them transition to 7nm.