IBM and Intel announced an important research collaboration to advance next-generation logic and packaging technologies. This collaboration aims to accelerate semiconductor manufacturing innovation across the ecosystem, enhance the competitiveness of the U.S. semiconductor industry and support key U.S. government initiatives.

IBM and Intel share a deep commitment to scientific research and world-class engineering, bringing innovations to the world that transform entire industries. Both companies have been incredible sources for innovations in industries that are focused on the next chapter of breakthrough technologies – hybrid cloud, AI, 5G, the intelligent edge, and quantum computing – which will unleash the power of data and advanced computation to transform how businesses work and people live.

IBM brings to this partnership decades of 'hard tech' semiconductor innovations that have shaped the industry, from the invention of one-transistor DRAM, to chemically amplified resists, to copper interconnects, to silicon germanium chips, to debuting the world's first 7 nanometer and 5 nanometer node test chips, to IBM’s continued innovation in the industry’s first advanced “nanosheet” device structure and electronics packaging technologies.

No single company, no matter how significant, can create and bring to bear the power of many of these technologies alone. IBM is a proponent of partnerships to accelerate innovation in the industry and has cultivated a thriving semiconductor research ecosystem in Albany, NY. This ecosystem has been built over nearly two decades and is the result of a highly successful public-private partnership between IBM, New York State, SUNY POLY, and many of the world’s leading semiconductor companies. As an example, our partnership with Samsung Electronics continues to grow, as does our relationship with them to manufacture IBM’s 7nm chips, the first of which will come to market later this year in IBM POWER10-based Systems.

Now, we are delighted that Intel, the world's largest semiconductor manufacturer, will be partnering with IBM and leveraging this unique chip innovation ecosystem to facilitate even greater R&D collaboration and catalyze critical new innovations in semiconductor technology. This collaboration puts two of the best semiconductor research organizations together to accelerate the velocity of packaging and process innovations into the future.

Within an IBM context, we create upstream value by leveraging the innovations that our deep tech semiconductor platform in Albany pioneers to differentiate our hybrid cloud and AI strategy. It is how we create the highest performance and most secure enterprise systems in the world: our IBM Z and IBM POWER platforms. And it is how we are pioneering new reduced-precision accelerator architectures that represent the future of AI hardware.

IBM's long-term focus and investment in Research is a core reason for our technology leadership insemiconductors, enterprise systems, hybridcloud, AI, quantum, and security. As we race toward 3 nanometer technology and beyond, leveraging the IBM Research semiconductor ecosystem and technology will be critical to meeting the growing needs of the United States and the world.

Dario Gil
Senior Vice President and Director of IBM Research