Intel's plans, announced Tuesday, to spend $20 billion to build new chip-making factories aimed to show that the company, and the US, are serious about regaining global leadership in a crucial technology. But the news also highlighted how far Intel, and the US, have fallen behind. As part of its plan, Intel said it would open its factories more widely to make chips for other companies, highlighting its manufacturing expertise and ambition. But at the same time, Intel said it would outsource production of some of its most advanced chips to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. TSMC is ahead of Intel in using extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) to put more computer power on a chip by squeezing transistors closer together.

Like many technology companies nowadays, Intel is trying to capitalize on the rise and hype of artificial intelligence. At a media event Thursday in San Francisco, Intel CEO Bryan Krzanich made the case for why he believes his company's chip technologies and products are best suited to power the various forms of trendy, cutting-edge data crunching techniques popularized in recent years by companies like Google goog, Facebook fb, IBM ibm, and others. These technology companies have used A.I. techniques like deep learning to train their computers to perform feats like translating text into different languages and recognizing objects in pictures. Intel intc is betting that more companies beyond just these technology giants will incorporate advanced data analytics into their business--and will need to buy the chips to power the tasks. With Intel's core personal computer chip-making business declining (along with the rest of the PC market), the company has been trying to shift to selling beefier chips that run inside company data centers.