Intel Considers Abandoning 18A Node for 14A Chipmaking Process

[Nomad76]

Intel's CEO Lip-Bu Tan is looking at a big change to how the company makes chips for others, Reuters reports citing people who know about it. The new plan might mean Intel stops offering its 18A process technology to other companies. This is different from the strategy of the former CEO, Pat Gelsinger, who had invested heavily in the 18A manufacturing process. Since assuming leadership in March, Tan has been working to reduce costs and find new approaches to revive the struggling chipmaker. By June, he began expressing concerns that the 18A process was failing to attract new customers. Abandoning external sales of 18A technology and focusing on its 14A process would require Intel to take substantial write-offs on the billions invested in its development. Industry analysts suggest these charges could reach hundreds of millions or potentially billions of dollars.

Intel plans to show the board these options later this month. However, a final decision is not expected until this autumn given the complexity and financial stakes involved. Even if they change plans, Intel will still keep its promises about 18A process including producing small amounts of chips for Amazon and Microsoft, and making its own "Panther Lake" laptop processors scheduled for late 2025. Along with standard 18A, Intel is creating two upgraded versions: 18A-P launching in 2026 and 18A-PT arriving in 2028.



Intel posted an $18.8 billion net loss in 2024, marking its first unprofitable year since 1986. Tan's alternative strategy centers on concentrating resources on 14A technology, a next-generation manufacturing process where Intel believes it can compete more effectively against Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). This approach aims to attract major clients like Apple and NVIDIA, who currently use TSMC for chip production. Intel declined to comment on what it termed market speculation, stating that leadership remains "committed to strengthening our roadmap, building trust with our customers, and improving our financial position."

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[Onasi]

Do you ever get that feeling of Deja Vu? I genuinely feel like we've been at this "next node for sure will be a game-changer" point with Intel several times already.

 

[kondamin]

Feels like they put someone in place to tear the company down

 

[john_]

So, are we stockpiling money to buy Intel shares, probably with single digit price, after Intel announce that 18A is history and "hundred of million or even billions" are going to be considered lost, hoping they will not completely f up the company and in fact manage to make a come back later?
Intel is going from bad to worst.

Do you ever get that feeling of Deja Vu? I genuinely feel like we've been at this "next node for sure will be a game-changer" point with Intel several times already.

I think Samsung has mastered this thing. "We have a new node, but it's not good for manufacturing, moving to the next one".
Intel is more like "We where going to have a new node, but we don't. Adding a + to what is working, hoping to build a newer working node in 2-3 years".

 

[LittleBro]

Ol' Patty bet the whole company on Intel's 18A process. Well, maybe pointlessly.
Now it perferctly makes sense why Intel reserved part of TSMC's 2N capacity.

Now, let's be serious - I hope this is not real.
Intel was focusing on 18A node for 2-3 years, made many purchases and investments (apart from bold statements).
18A (allegedly) has good yields. Recently there was interesting report about 18A efficiency. So, where's the problem?

 

[Daven]

Ol' Patty bet the whole company on Intel's 18A process. Well, maybe pointlessly.
Now it perferctly makes sense why Intel reserved part of TSMC's 2N capacity.

Now, let's be serious - I hope this is not real.
Intel was focusing on 18A node for 2-3 years, made many purchases and investments (apart from bold statements).
18A (allegedly) has good yields. Recently there was interesting report about 18A efficiency. So, where's the problem?

It’s a good chance those statements were all lies.

 

[usiname]

How long before they abandon the 14A node in favor of 10A or whatever is the next?

 

[Daven]

I could write a long diatribe about how Intel just needs to shutdown but I'll leave this graphic to explain how this is all playing out. I hope some of you older peeps get it.

 

[dtoxic]

How long before they abandon the 14A node in favor of 10A or whatever is the next?

The moment they get enough money from early buyers, then it's abandon ship and focus on the "Next Great" thing, Typical Intel.

 

[cucol]

bububububububuyututububuytubvubut media said to us the last few years that intel 18a was the second avenue of Christ.

what happened?

 

[phanbuey]

bububububububuyututububuytubvubut media said to us the last few years that intel 18a was the second avenue of Christ.

what happened?

Right?

As soon as Nova Lake was announced on TSMC in 2h 2026 you knew this was going to happen and all the hype around 18A was complete BS, otherwise they would have used it.

At this point short big poppa uncle sam is going to have to come in and subsidize. Maybe include intel in that runaway defense budget instead of palantir.

 

[Daven]

Right?

As soon as Nova Lake was announced on TSMC in 2h 2026 you knew this was going to happen and all the hype around 18A was complete BS, otherwise they would have used it.

At this point short big poppa uncle sam is going to have to come in and subsidize. Maybe include intel in that runaway defense budget instead of palantir.

If Intel becomes wholly owned by the military industrial complex, that is the same as them being gone as far as we consumers are concerned.

 

[Denver]

Even if only part of it is true, that says a lot about how broken this company is.

 

[phanbuey]

If Intel becomes wholly owned by the military industrial complex, that is the same as them being gone as far as we consumers are concerned.

They could do what Boeing, GM or AT&T do - there's quite a few consumer companies that are heavily supported by DOD.

But yeah at this point they're still in the woods.

 

[Tomorrow]

Do you ever get that feeling of Deja Vu? I genuinely feel like we've been at this "next node for sure will be a game-changer" point with Intel several times already.

I think Samsung has mastered this thing. "We have a new node, but it's not good for manufacturing, moving to the next one".
Intel is more like "We where going to have a new node, but we don't. Adding a + to what is working, hoping to build a newer working node in 2-3 years".

Indeed. They only compete with TSMC on paper. In reality neither has had node leadership in ages.

 

[kiniku]

So far from what has been leaked or released, Nova Lake could be promising.

 

[TechLurker]

And then there's China slowly coming in from behind with a steel chair, thanks to questionably reverse-engineering whatever they could get their hands on in terms of fab equipment. And they have the benefit of full government funding as chip manufacturing is now considered a critical sector, and they aim not only for independence against tariffs and sales restrictions, but also owning the market by forcibly flooding it with cheaper analogues.

Intel is/was the US' only real homegrown rival trying to compete on the leading/bleeding edge, and they've had more failures than successes. It's interesting that they used to be ahead of Samsung and was once 2nd place in terms of being on the bleeding edge, but now fall behind given they've never gotten a fully viable node going.

 

[umeng2002]

I see their talent recruiting strategy over the past 15 years is paying dividends...

 

[ThomasK]

In April, 18A was supposed to be Intel's holy grail, outperforming the competition's 2nm class nodes. What changed so drastically in the last3 months ? Guess the shareholders are being lied to.

Intel's 18A Node Outperforms TSMC N2 and Samsung SF2 in 2 nm Performance Class

Intel's 18A node isn't all about yields and density (which are still very important factors) but also performance. According to Taiwanese media 3C News, citing TechInsights research and calculations, the new leader of node performance is Intel 18A. On a custom scale used by TechInsights, Intel...

www.techpowerup.com

My opinion withstanding that Intel should spin off its fabs.

thanks to questionably reverse-engineering whatever they could get their hands on in terms of fab equipment. but also owning the market by forcibly flooding it with cheaper analogues.

Isn't that the bottom line with everything coming from China? Just look at the car industry.

 

[Daven]

In April, 18A was supposed to be Intel's holy grail, outperforming the competition's 2nm class nodes. What changed so drastically in the 3 last months? Guess the shareholders are being lied to.

Intel's 18A Node Outperforms TSMC N2 and Samsung SF2 in 2 nm Performance Class

Intel's 18A node isn't all about yields and density (which are still very important factors) but also performance. According to Taiwanese media 3C News, citing TechInsights research and calculations, the new leader of node performance is Intel 18A. On a custom scale used by TechInsights, Intel...

www.techpowerup.com

My opinion withstanding that Intel should spin off its fabs.

I think we might have all been lied to.

 

[LittleBro]

Now it's just a matter of time before they cancel launch of Battlemage 700 series GPUs. I know there are already shipping manifests and entries in code present here and there, but it's more than clear GPU division will not bring considerable profits, so ...

 

[Panther_Seraphin]

Now it's just a matter of time before they cancel launch of Battlemage 700 series GPUs. I know there are already shipping manifests and entries in code present here and there, but it's more than clear GPU division will not bring considerable profits, so ...

Yet they have some of the most potential with the demand AI is generating in the Datacenter space for accelerators. Be stupid to abandon it now when they have done all the hard work and got the platform off the ground and starting to gain acceptance.

 

[Dristun]

Then Lip gets the sack and the next CEO shuffles the ever-thinning deck of cards again. Very bad look.

 

[EsaT]

I see their talent recruiting strategy over the past 15 years is paying dividends...

Don't worry. All the quarterly capitalist MBAs who drove Intel to ground and made it dig hole for itself have gotten their fat salaries and other bonuses.

 

[LastDudeALive]