There has been a paradox at the heart of Intel’s revival plan launched three years ago. It is one that the struggling US chipmaker took a small step towards trying to resolve this week as it tries to pull off one of the most complex turnarounds in tech history.

The paradox stems from chief executive Pat Gelsinger’s decision to keep Intel’s chip design and manufacturing operations under one roof, rather than splitting them into separate companies.

Intel doesn’t sell enough of its own PC and server chips to soak up the huge output from the giant manufacturing plants, or fabs, it needs to build to get back to the forefront of advanced chipmaking. So it has to persuade other companies — many of them rivals — to have their chips made in its fabs as well, turning it into what the chip world calls a foundry.