There have been several positive signals from Intel in recent months. A notable trend after a long succession of bad news. First, let’s talk about what interests us: from a technical point of view, Intel is back on track. Panther Lake confirms, in the mobile environment, that Lunar Lake wasn’t just a flash in the pan, and the Arrow Lake refresh is also an excellent surprise. One wonders whether this generation, with a little more serenity, might not have deserved a better reception. But past and past and now it’s the future we’re interested in, with a product catalog that has the editors very excited (Nova Lake, of course, but we’ll probably have to wait until 2027). However, it’s also on other fronts that the bright spots seem to be arriving. The foundry business, which has been a financial and political millstone around our necks in recent years, could finally bring us some good news.
Intel could sign up “big” customers for its 14A
By the end of the year, Intel Foundry should be announcing “big” customers for its 18A variants, but above all for its promising 14A technology.
According to UBS Group, Intel’s 14A process is beginning to attract the attention of several major players in the semiconductor industry. Intel’s cautious communication is explained by the presence in the mix of NVIDIA, Apple, Google and AMD. At this stage, these four companies would appear to be the most credible “candidates” to use 14A in the production of their next chips. At the same time, Intel is expected to unveil its first concrete commitments to its foundry business this autumn. However, several sources claim that Intel has already signed a few major deals, but is reserving its communication for later. But beyond the engraving that now seems to be convincing, it’s also the mastery of encapsulation technology that is scoring points and becoming an option in the face of TSMC’s bottleneck. Google and Amazon are said to be the hottest prospects in this area.
Last but not least, the rapprochement with Elon Musk’s Terafab project also seems to be benefiting Intel. Even if test production is not expected before 2029, the nature of this rapprochement is positively appealing to industry analysts.
In short, we can’t wait to find out more, and can’t wait to see Intel back on its feet. Real competition with AMD and TSMC can only be good for our industry.
