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AMD mostly designs chips and hires outside companies to fabricate, assemble and package them. Intel still develops manufacturing processes and makes many products in its own facilities, while also selling foundry services and using—or potentially using—outside manufacturers for some products. The difference is a business model, not a simple rule that AMD never manufactures or Intel makes every chip itself.
What is the basic difference between AMD and Intel?
AMD is a fabless semiconductor company: it designs products but outsources wafer fabrication and much of the work after wafers are made. Intel follows an integrated device manufacturer (IDM) model: it develops process technology and operates manufacturing facilities as well as designing and selling its own products. Intel also has an external foundry business, but nearly all Intel Foundry activity currently supports Intel products, according to its 2025 Form 10-K.
These labels describe the center of each company’s model, not an absolute boundary. AMD manages product design, supplier qualification and production planning even though suppliers run the fabs. Intel may choose an outside foundry where it makes sense, and its foundry organization offers services to external customers.
How AMD’s outsourced manufacturing works
AMD’s 2025 Form 10-K says TSMC supplies its microprocessor and GPU wafers at 7 nm and smaller process nodes. AMD relies primarily on GlobalFoundries for those products at larger nodes. Its programmable logic products involve additional suppliers, including TSMC, UMC and Samsung.
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Wafer fabrication is only one stage. Once wafers are produced, chips may need to be cut, assembled, tested, marked and packaged. AMD says it relies on third-party assembly, test, mark and packaging (ATMP) providers, so the company making a wafer need not be the company handling those later steps.
This approach lets AMD avoid owning and operating the fabs needed to produce its chips. It also makes production dependent on suppliers’ available capacity, technology schedules and packaging capabilities. AMD warns that capacity limits or disruptions at suppliers can affect its ability to meet customer demand. Outsourcing changes where manufacturing risk sits; it does not eliminate that risk.
How Intel’s integrated model works
Intel develops process technology and manufactures products internally, alongside operating Intel Foundry. In its 2025 Form 10-K, Intel describes the segment’s work as process development, manufacturing, external foundry services, assembly and test, advanced packaging and design enablement.
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Intel Foundry is therefore not simply an independent supplier serving a broad external customer base. Intel says nearly all of the segment currently supports products made for Intel’s own product businesses, although it also offers foundry services to outside customers and aims to grow that business. Intel’s integrated model gives it the option to coordinate product and process decisions within the company, but requires large, long-term investments in facilities and manufacturing capabilities.
What Intel’s manufacturing financials do—and do not—show
Intel reported $17.826 billion in Intel Foundry segment revenue and a $10.318 billion operating loss for 2025. Those segment figures include internal activity; they are not a measure of external customer sales. Intel separately reported $307 million in 2025 external foundry and assembly/test revenue in the same filing.
Intel reported more than $100 billion in net property, plant and equipment at December 27, 2025, and estimated that the substantial majority related to Intel Foundry. Those figures illustrate the scale of Intel’s manufacturing commitment, but they do not establish that Intel’s model is inherently more expensive or less efficient per chip. The available filings do not provide a matched AMD-versus-Intel comparison of fab yields, wafer costs or overall manufacturing efficiency.
How the models compare in practice
| Question | AMD | Intel |
|---|---|---|
| Who operates wafer fabs and develops processes? | AMD describes itself as fabless and says manufacturing is outsourced to suppliers. Its 2025 Form 10-K identifies external wafer suppliers. | Intel develops processes and operates manufacturing facilities; Intel Foundry includes internal manufacturing and process development, according to its 2025 Form 10-K. |
| Who controls production capacity? | External suppliers operate the fabs and provide capacity; AMD selects and plans with suppliers and warns that constraints can affect supply. | Intel controls substantial internal capacity, while also considering external foundries for some products. |
| Where does capital exposure sit? | AMD avoids the need to fund its own leading-edge fab network, but depends on suppliers’ capacity and continued investment. | Intel makes substantial manufacturing investments. It reported more than $100 billion in net property, plant and equipment as of December 27, 2025, with the substantial majority estimated to relate to Intel Foundry. |
| How much of the foundry work is external? | AMD is a customer of foundries and back-end partners rather than a foundry selling wafer capacity. | Intel offers foundry services externally, but nearly all Intel Foundry activity currently supports Intel products, per its 2025 Form 10-K. |
| Can the company use outside suppliers? | Yes. AMD relies on multiple foundry and ATMP suppliers across products and stages. | Yes. Intel says it chooses internal or external processes according to performance and cost, and describes circumstances in which it could shift additional products to third-party foundries. |
Why the line between the models is changing
Manufacturing choices are product-specific. Intel says it aims to use the internal or external process node most appropriate for performance and cost. Its filing also says that if it cannot secure a significant external customer for Intel 14A, it may pause or discontinue that process and successor technologies. It further describes the possibility of shifting products beyond Intel 18A and 18A-P to third-party foundries, particularly TSMC. These are conditional disclosures, not confirmation that such a shift has already happened.
Foundry capacity and process roadmaps also evolve. TSMC’s 2025 Annual Report says its 2 nm process entered high-volume manufacturing in the fourth quarter of 2025, with a fast ramp expected in 2026. That describes TSMC’s stated process timeline; it does not by itself establish which process or package AMD uses for any particular product.
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What this means for manufacturing risk
AMD: less direct fab investment, more supplier dependence
AMD’s outsourced approach limits its direct exposure to the cost of building and running its own advanced wafer fabs. In exchange, it depends on other companies for wafer supply and back-end capacity. A supplier bottleneck, disruption or change in process availability can constrain AMD even when demand for its products is strong.
Intel: more operational control, more fixed investment
Intel’s internal manufacturing gives it direct responsibility for process development, fab operations and the capital tied up in facilities. That structure can support coordination between product and process decisions, but it also concentrates more manufacturing execution and investment risk inside Intel. Intel has described the IDM model as supporting product optimization, economics and supply assurance; that is Intel’s own characterization, not a neutral guarantee of those outcomes.
Neither model alone proves which company has lower chip costs, better yields or more reliable supply. Such comparisons require comparable product, process, capacity and time-period data that these company disclosures do not provide.
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Does AMD make its own chips?
AMD designs its chips and manages their production, but it contracts external suppliers to fabricate wafers and relies on outside partners for assembly, test and packaging. Calling AMD fabless refers to its lack of an owned wafer-fabrication model; it does not mean AMD has no role in manufacturing decisions.
Does Intel use TSMC to make chips?
Intel’s filing says it may use external foundries and identifies potential reliance on companies such as TSMC for products beyond Intel 18A and 18A-P under specified conditions. It also says product process choices depend on performance and cost. This does not mean Intel has already shifted those products to TSMC, nor that Intel makes every product internally.
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