Talk of TSMC punting money into Troubled Chipzilla has fizzled before, but this round smells different and a bit richer.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Chipzilla has sounded out TSMC about an investment tied to manufacturing or wider partnerships. Both firms are declining to comment and the silence is doing nothing to calm the noise.

Two things have juiced the atmosphere. TSMC’s heavyweight customer Nvidia has waved its own cheque book, while the US government has also claimed a piece. Apple is alleged to be negotiating a slice of the pie too.

Nvidia, for its part, is said to be lining up a cool $50 billion to grab about four per cent of Intel, which would be a proper flex.

SoftBank Group was tipped to have slung $20 billion Chipzilla’s way in August, adding another dollop of liquidity to the silicon soap opera.

Analysts mutter that TSMC is effectively everyone’s foundry, and picking favourites by backing a single customer invites fairness rows. It does not help that Chipzilla is a TSMC client and a rival across the wafer-making pitch.

Whispers in April about TSMC throwing money into Intel Foundry Services rattled punters, with recurring jitters about possible tech leakage clouding the share price. TSMC chief executive Wei Zhejia said, “TSMC is currently not negotiating any joint venture technology licensing, technology transfer and sharing with other companies.”

Plans tied to US subsidies would park about 30 per cent of TSMC’s 2nm-and-above output in Arizona, building a self-contained cutting-edge cluster that fattens economies of scale and pads out America’s chip supply chain.

TSMC says the aim is to keep being an “indispensable” partner for customers while leaning on US strengths across kit, talent and tooling.

“As we continue to be a key partner and take full advantage of all the strengths and leadership of the U.S. semiconductor industry,” Wei said.