Intel CEO Steve Chen will try to win support from artificial intelligence chip giants Nvidia and Broadcom in a bid to turn around the troubled company. Chen Liwu took over the reins of Intel earlier this month and has since laid out plans to revive the troubled company. Customer satisfaction is at the core of his approach, and two chip giants that could become Intel customers in the future are Nvidia and Broadcom, according to investment bank UBS.

The UBS report, released yesterday afternoon, builds on earlier speculation that Chen Liwu was interested in acquiring customers for Intel's foundry business.

existBefore Chen Liwu became an Intel executive, there was widespread market speculation that Intel would divest its foundry business. However, he immediately emphasized after taking office that he would build Intel into a world-class foundry and temporarily quelled rumors about divesting the business. Intel has struggled to compete with Taiwan's TSMC in producing chips for other companies, UBS said.Chen Liwu may include NVIDIA and Broadcom as customers.

Tim Arcuri, an analyst at the investment firm, pointed out that NVIDIA is more likely to become an Intel customer than Broadcom. However, he noted that Intel may not produce NVIDIA's AIGPU as part of its first batch of orders. Instead, the company will produce NVIDIA's gaming GPUs.

Arcuri said that Intel is working hard to solve the power consumption problem of the manufacturing process. Analysts believe that the company will "actively promote the launch of a low-power version of 18A (18AP) to attract consumers, which will be more attractive than 18A."

However, although Intel will focus on winning NVIDIA as a foundry customer, the company's 18A process still struggles to meet power consumption requirements. In addition, the analyst also believes that Intel can use its packaging process to imitate TSMC's CoWoS packaging. Packaging restrictions have hampered the production of AI chips and forced Taiwan's TSMC, the world's leading AI chip maker, to invest in new facilities to meet demand.

Intel shares are up 15% so far this year, driven byChen Liwu took office. As of mid-February, Intel's shares had risen 35% on speculation that its chip unit could be acquired by TSMC as the Trump administration works to bring advanced chip manufacturing to the United States. However, inIntel shares had given up gains before Chen took over and are down 2% so far this year.

Arcuri also believes that Intel may also supply chips to Apple. Apple currently relies heavily on TSMC to supply applications processors and other chips for its laptops, smartphones and tablets. However, UBS analysts pointed out that Intel's cooperation with Taiwan's United Microelectronics (UMC) could "make Intel/UMC the second largest high-voltage FinFET supplier after TSMC and potentially provide supply for Apple products next year."