A rumored joint venture between Intel Corp. and its biggest rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. TSM, could pose more potential problems than it may be worth, while the U.S. chip giant could actually be fine without it, Bernstein Research concluded.

TSMC could send engineers to Intel’s foundry business as part of such a venture, and potentially launch a new entity jointly owned by TSMC and Intel that could benefit from U.S. government funding under the Chips Act, the analysts said. Intel’s foundry business has struggled to keep up with TSMC, losing $13.4 billion in 2024.

First came a statement by Vice President J.D. Vance early this week that "the Trump administration will ensure that the most powerful AI systems are built in the U.S. with American-designed and manufactured chips.