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TSMC's advanced packaging lines are booked through 2027, and Intel's alternative technology is attracting major customers like Google and Nvidia
The AI chip supply chain has a bottleneck, and it’s not where most people expect. It’s not in the fabs where transistors get etched onto silicon wafers. It’s in the back end of the process, where those chips get packaged into the complex multi-die modules that power AI workloads. TSMC, the world’s dominant chipmaker, has its advanced packaging lines fully booked through 2027.
The packaging problem, explained #
TSMC’s packaging technology, called CoWoS (Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate), has become the gold standard. Nvidia’s GPUs use it. AMD’s MI300 uses it. The demand has far outstripped supply. TSMC’s CEO acknowledged during the company’s July 2026 earnings call that packaging capacity limitations are actively constraining customer growth.
Intel’s EMIB play #
Intel’s EMIB technology, or Embedded Multi-die Interconnect Bridge, uses small silicon bridges embedded in the package substrate to connect chiplets, rather than requiring an expensive silicon interposer like CoWoS does. Intel has been positioning EMIB and its companion 3D stacking technology, Foveros, as the cornerstone of its foundry comeback story.
Google has committed to ordering more than 3 million units of Intel’s EMIB-T packaging for its next-generation TPU (Tensor Processing Unit), with delivery expected in 2028. Nvidia is evaluating Intel’s EMIB for its Feynman-generation processor, a future multi-die design using four dies. As of late May 2026, MediaTek announced support for both TSMC CoWoS and Intel EMIB. Intel projects that EMIB and Foveros could eventually generate several billion dollars in annual revenue, compared to its external foundry revenue of approximately $293 million in a recent quarter.
TSMC isn’t standing still #
In late July 2026, TSMC announced plans to develop its own EMIB-like technology in collaboration with Kinsus, a Taiwanese substrate manufacturer, a direct response to Intel’s growing momentum in the packaging space.
What this means for investors #
Intel’s external foundry revenue stands at roughly $293 million versus TSMC’s $40 billion-plus in quarterly revenue. If Intel can convert the Google TPU order and potential Nvidia Feynman work into sustained packaging revenue, the several-billion-dollar annual revenue target for EMIB and Foveros would represent a meaningful new revenue stream. Google’s 3 million TPU order targets 2028 delivery, while TSMC is actively expanding its own CoWoS capacity and developing its Kinsus partnership, which will erode the window Intel currently enjoys.
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