TSMC gets another bidder for its 5nm fab, which affects their pricing power versus bigger 5nm clients. In other words, TSMC makes more money both through increased fab utilization and through price elasticity of demand, while Intel gets to squeeze the gross margins of AMD and Apple.
It makes even less sense when you consider that all these i3/i5/i7/whatever designations are just marketing ploys that don't actually mean anything.
I have a number of computers with Intel processors of varying generations. I know by heart how many cores and threads each one has. I couldn't care less whether any given one is an i3/i5/i7 -- only people who have little clue about processors care about those brand name designations intended to command a higher price for about the same performance.
I think this makes sense in the format that Intel may make 5nm i3 CPUs branded as something else, the timeline for these chips is way far off though, 2022 at least. The M1X ravaging will have already happened to the high-spec SKU industry. Intel needs a response framed as 'we are there at that level'.
That should be an i3-like (in design, not name) ultra low power but clocked to the moon CPU. Possibly breaking 5Ghz by a LOT.
Why would Intel pay top dollar for 5nm and sell cheap Core i3 CPUs?
Is TSMC even receptive to "help" Intel on those terms?