We reported on this a short while ago: Intel is stepping up the pace and putting pressure on the authorities in its home country. Intel is on schedule with the construction of its new fabs in Ohio and Arizona , while TSMC is struggling to make headway with its facilities outside Taiwan and in the USA in particular. Intel is making great strides thanks to the financial support of its home country, but also because in the last few hours, the company headed by Pat Gelsinger has reportedly received a major order for its future 18A chips.
On the surface, there’s a lot of speculation about this new customer. Mediatek recently stated that it considered Intel’s 18A process to be without competition. This suggests that the company will be turning to this process on a massive scale for the manufacture of its chips, notably at its Oregon-based FAB. Theoretical deliveries are not expected before 2025, however. Let’s not forget that on this subject, Intel is also advancing its plans to buy a share of ARM’s capital…
A large down payment from a mysterious customer…
But during the company’s regular update with financial analysts, including those from Deutsche Bank, Pat Gelsinger officially announced that “his company has just received a down payment from a major customer to reserve production capacity for the Intel 18A node” . Father Pat didn’t stop there , however, as he backed up his statement with the assertion that the size of this down payment was likely to upset his plans and enable Intel to accelerate the construction of its new chip manufacturing plant in Arizona.
Will Nvidia and/or Apple be Intel’s future customers?
Although no amount has been announced, it’s not easy to come up with the money to reserve a significant volume of production, which will be released in 18 months at best. Most analysts agree that only 2 players have the financial clout for an operation of this kind: Apple and NVIDIA.
However, things look complicated for Apple, which has signed a deal with TSMC on very favorable terms for the next two years. That leaves Nvidia, which is being courted by Intel and whose teams have already been involved in early testing of the 18A process. A deal could be envisaged, particularly for AI-specific chips , on which the US is putting particular pressure on its companies…
