Latest news with #18A
Business Insider
3 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
'(Build) The Biggest, Baddest CPU': Intel Stock (NASDAQ:INTC) Notches up Despite Ironic Twist
This might have been the unkindest cut that chip stock Intel (INTC) could have received. Sure, yesterday and its potential loss of CHIPS Act funding was a low blow, no mistake there, but it only got worse as new reports revealed that several Intel staffers were leaving Intel to do exactly what Intel would have needed them to do: build the 'biggest, baddest CPU' around. Shareholders took the news well, though, and sent shares up fractionally in Friday afternoon's trading. Confident Investing Starts Here: Four of Intel's biggest names in research—who together had a combined experience of almost a century at Intel—departed the company in a plan to build a totally new kind of microprocessor. They will be using a kind of architecture that is completely different from Intel's, reports note, and in the process, hopefully show up their former bosses in the process. The four started their own company, called AheadComputing, and is working on an open style of architecture known as Reduced Instruction Set Computer – V, or RISC-V. The result, AheadComputing hopes, will be a processor that does fewer things than the current processor concept, but does this comparative handful of things better than the current processor does them. Essentially, reports note, the four are risking that AheadComputing—a vastly smaller company—will be able to move faster and better than Intel. Given Intel's new 'risk-averse' nature that we discovered yesterday with the 50% gross profit concept, they may not be wrong. But what has Intel missed out on in the process? Roadmapping an Uncertain Future But life goes on at Intel, reports note, and word notes that the Intel Foundry Direct Connect 2025 event is showing off its roadmaps and its partnerships. Intel Foundry, of course, is the chip manufacturing portion of Intel, and the one which has perhaps come under the most fire of late. But Intel looks to start delivering under the 18A process this year, and that should go a long way toward re-establishing Intel's dominance as a chip maker. Naturally, it is unclear as yet how much capacity 18A will have overall, and how much of that capacity can go to making other companies' chips. Early word suggests that everything is on schedule, so that will, at least, not be a problem. And with 14A and 14A-E waiting in the wings, it is entirely possible that Intel may be able to keep the streak going and come out ahead in the end. Is Intel a Buy, Hold or Sell? Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on INTC stock based on two Buys, 25 Holds and four Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 34.97% loss in its share price over the past year, the average INTC price target of $21.29 per share implies 5.63% upside potential.
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Intel Foundry Waits for More, Bigger Orders
Long before former Intel board member Lip-Bu Tan returned to take the reins at Intel, the company was betting big on its upcoming 18A node. The first sub-2nm process from Intel's foundry 18A had the potential to reel in the big customer commitments that Intel needs to get its foundry back to black. Tan began reshaping the chip giant to be leaner and more focused while also helping 18A, the culmination of his predecessor's vision, make the final leg of its journey to production. Now, customers are trying test chips, but the commitments haven't up—at least, not yet, according to a report from Reuters. Intel Foundry roadmap. Credit: Intel It's too early to worry much about Intel's 18A orders, but much rests on the new node. Speaking at J.P. Morgan's Global Technology, Media and Communications conference in Boston, Massachusetts, Intel finance head David Zinser noted that Intel Foundry needs customers to place orders amounting to billions of dollars to meet the company's expectations for the Foundry breaking even in 2027. As yet, commitments apparently have been significant. Intel likely doesn't need all that many customers to hit its goals. Picking up Broadcom and Nvidia, both companies that reportedly have been engaged in tests of 18A-based tech, could give Intel Foundry a significant boost. And the US government has apparently been encouraging Broadcom and Nvidia to consider Intel as a way to improve US chip production. At the same time, Taiwan-based TSMC, which has made chips for Broadcom and Nvidia, is taking major steps to increase its US manufacturing presence and is bringing some of its latest chip technology to its fab in Arizona. As a result of TSMC's efforts, customers may have the option to consider both Intel and TSMC without running afoul of the Trump administration's efforts to bring manufacturing back to the US. Credit: TSMC Zinser also suggested that Intel's new CEO isn't planning 'massive changes' to Intel Foundry. Given that assessment, it seems likely that the Foundry is here to stay, both for external customers and for making Intel's own chips. Meanwhile, TSMC claims to be seeing 'unprecedented' demand for its N2 process. The 2nm node has been available to customers for a short time, putting it ahead of its direct competitor, Intel's 18A. Apple is believed to be TSMC's first major customer for the 18A process, with more customers waiting in the wings.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Intel's new chip manufacturing technology is its greatest hope for a turnaround — and its biggest risk
Intel's (INTC) efforts to restore the chip giant to its former glory may hinge on a new manufacturing process the company calls 18A. Short for 18 angstroms — an angstrom is equal to 0.1 nanometers — 18A is, according to Wall Street analysts and chip industry experts, Intel's last hope to take back the semiconductor crown from rival TSMC (TSM). Available later this year, 18A takes advantage of two manufacturing techniques that TSMC isn't using yet: gate-all-around transistors and backside power. Intel says the technologies will improve its chips' performance and efficiency. But Intel isn't just using 18A to reclaim its place as a leading chipmaker. The company is also banking on using the technology to move in on TSMC's contract manufacturing business by building 18A-based chips for itself and custom versions for third-party customers. But that'll prove difficult. TSMC already builds chips for companies including AMD, Apple, and Nvidia. Intel opened up its manufacturing business to outside clients in 2021 under former CEO Pat Gelsinger. But Wall Street analysts and executives grew exasperated with his strategy and what they saw as unrealistic goals for the business, which lost $13.4 billion in 2024 despite recording a revenue of $17.5 billion. So far, Amazon and Microsoft have signed on to build their own chips using Intel's 18A process, with the hope that others will follow suit. But CFO David Zinsner says third-party commitments are "not significant" yet, according to Reuters. Intel's 18A is so important because it's introducing two technologies to the company's chips at once. First, it's taking advantage of gate-all-around transistors — next-generation transistors that can more actively control the flow of electricity through a chip. It's also using a technique called backside power, which changes where and how power is delivered to a chip's transistors to enable more efficiency and better performance. Together, the two technologies would help improve AI application performance without running into energy constraints, UC Santa Barbara engineering processor Kaustav Banerjee told Yahoo Finance. That would cut down on problems like overheating — something that reportedly plagued Nvidia's Blackwell graphics processing units (GPUs) when they were in development. Taking first-mover advantage in the chip industry typically means big wins for a semiconductor manufacturer. Intel's founders invented modern semiconductors, and the chipmaker was the first to successfully manufacture a new kind of transistor called Finfet in 2011. But TSMC flipped the script in 2019 when it became the first to successfully use advanced chipmaking technology called EUV lithography — massive machines worth hundreds of millions of dollars — to make semiconductors, which helped it soar past Intel and make the world's most advanced AI chips for companies including Apple and Nvidia. That's not all. Intel also already had to delay the rollout of 18A from the first half of 2025 to the second half, according to the company's previous earnings calls. Trying to perfect both backside power and gate-all-around transistors at once introduces greater manufacturing complexity and greater room for error. "Both of these technologies [are] enormously complex on [their] own," Chris Miller, author of "Chip War," told Yahoo Finance. "So it's even harder to do them simultaneously." A manufacturing employee at Intel's foundry in Oregon told Yahoo Finance on the condition of anonymity that the technology wasn't ready for external customers in December. In a follow-up interview in March, however, they said 18A "has gotten a lot better" and Intel staffers are "optimistic" about it. Another manufacturing employee at the fab said 18A is "on track." Still, they worried that Intel's planned layoffs could depress morale and hinder their work toward getting the process out the door. TSMC isn't sitting idly by, though. The company is also launching gate-all-around transistors through its N2 technology, which it plans to release later this year. It's also working to add backside power to its chips in 2026. Ensuring 18A works is only part of the equation. Intel also has to prove it can sign up customers to take advantage of the technology for their own chips and can pump them out in the volumes they need. "Can they do it? Yes, they can do it," Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya said. "But can they do it with the kind of yield and scale like TSMC? That, I think, remains to be seen." Gelsinger staked part of Intel's revival on his plans to turn the company into a third-party foundry. Tan appears to be set to stick to that plan. And while Intel expects its foundry business, which has been hemorrhaging money, to break even by 2027, Wall Street may not be willing to wait that long. Various analysts have called for Intel to ditch its third-party foundry, and even get out of the chip manufacturing business entirely, and stick to designing semiconductors like rivals AMD and Nvidia. But since Intel is the US's sole large-scale advanced chip manufacturer, the government is keen on keeping its manufacturing arm intact. Intel has secured $7.8 billion in US CHIPS Act funding, and ditching its foundry would put that funding at risk. "The US doesn't want to be exclusively dependent on foreign firms for advanced production and R&D. Right now, Intel is the only firm with advanced R&D in the United States," author Chris Miller explained. While TSMC is expanding its US footprint, investing $165 billion in new plants and research facilities in the coming year, only one-third of its most advanced chipmaking will take place in the US, the company said in an April call with investors. Still, Bank of America's Vivek Arya said TSMC's US expansion "blunts Intel's advantage to some extent." For Intel, it all comes down to proving 18A can succeed. We'll find out later this year. Laura Bratton is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Bluesky @ Email her at Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@ Follow him on X/Twitter at @DanielHowley. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Intel admits it doesn't have any 'significant' commitments from customers to make advanced chips in its fabs
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. For almost as long as we can remember (okay, about three years), the 18A node has been all-important for Intel. Former CEO Pat Gelsinger said he'd bet the whole company on 18A. Indeed, the first 18A chips are due later this year in the form of intel's next CPU for laptops, Panther Lake. But according to Intel itself, 18A has yet to win any "significant" business from customers. The comment comes from David Zinsner, Intel's CFO, during a conference in Boston yesterday. "We get test chips, and then some customers fall out of the test chips... So committed volume is not significant right now, for sure," Zinsner is reported by Reuters to have said. This is not good news. The likes of Nvidia and Broadcom are widely reported to have sent test chips to Intel to assess the 18A node. Whatever the identity of the companies that have tested 18A, what Zinsner is confirming is that none of those test chips have convinced a major customer to place a big order with Intel. In other words, potential customers have given 18A a try with test chips and haven't yet been convinced to sign a deal, at least not for what Intel itself deems a "significant" volume of chips. And producing chips for customers, as opposed to only making its own products like Core CPUs, is central to Intel's plans for recovery from struggles in recent years. How all this fits in with a purported $15 billion deal between Intel and Microsoft to produce chips isn't clear. That tie up was announced way back in February 2024. As far as we know, that hasn't translated into chips being manufactured and CFO Zinsner's comments seem to indicate that Microsoft is not currently producing chips at volume with Intel. What's odd in the context of the announced Microsoft deal is the implication from Zinsner that there aren't even any significant commitments to produce chips. As is seemingly always the case with Intel and it's 18A node, we'll just have to wait and see. Panther Lake is supposedly coming later this year, so we'll just have to hope it arrives on time and see iof it's any good. We'll likewise have to wait and see if Intel can convince anyone else to sign up to the 18A node any time soon. But the clock is surely ticking. Much of the industry is expected to sign up to TSMC's competing node. AMD, for instance, says it's next-gen Venice server CPU based on Zen 6 CPU cores will be built on TSMC's N2 node. While such chips won't be released for some time, deals to make them are being signed now, and if Intel doesn't begin winning business soon, it could be too late for 18A. Of course, Intel also has a 14A node in development. But like ex-CEO Gelsinger said, Intel has bet the company on 18A. So, it surely needs to win at least some significant business. Best CPU for gaming: Top chips from Intel and gaming motherboard: The right graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher SSD for gaming: Get into the game first.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Intel admits it doesn't have any 'significant' commitments from customers to make advanced chips in its fabs
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. For almost as long as we can remember (okay, about three years), the 18A node has been all-important for Intel. Former CEO Pat Gelsinger said he'd bet the whole company on 18A. Indeed, the first 18A chips are due later this year in the form of intel's next CPU for laptops, Panther Lake. But according to Intel itself, 18A has yet to win any "significant" business from customers. The comment comes from David Zinsner, Intel's CFO, during a conference in Boston yesterday. "We get test chips, and then some customers fall out of the test chips... So committed volume is not significant right now, for sure," Zinsner is reported by Reuters to have said. This is not good news. The likes of Nvidia and Broadcom are widely reported to have sent test chips to Intel to assess the 18A node. Whatever the identity of the companies that have tested 18A, what Zinsner is confirming is that none of those test chips have convinced a major customer to place a big order with Intel. In other words, potential customers have given 18A a try with test chips and haven't yet been convinced to sign a deal, at least not for what Intel itself deems a "significant" volume of chips. And producing chips for customers, as opposed to only making its own products like Core CPUs, is central to Intel's plans for recovery from struggles in recent years. How all this fits in with a purported $15 billion deal between Intel and Microsoft to produce chips isn't clear. That tie up was announced way back in February 2024. As far as we know, that hasn't translated into chips being manufactured and CFO Zinsner's comments seem to indicate that Microsoft is not currently producing chips at volume with Intel. What's odd in the context of the announced Microsoft deal is the implication from Zinsner that there aren't even any significant commitments to produce chips. As is seemingly always the case with Intel and it's 18A node, we'll just have to wait and see. Panther Lake is supposedly coming later this year, so we'll just have to hope it arrives on time and see iof it's any good. We'll likewise have to wait and see if Intel can convince anyone else to sign up to the 18A node any time soon. But the clock is surely ticking. Much of the industry is expected to sign up to TSMC's competing node. AMD, for instance, says it's next-gen Venice server CPU based on Zen 6 CPU cores will be built on TSMC's N2 node. While such chips won't be released for some time, deals to make them are being signed now, and if Intel doesn't begin winning business soon, it could be too late for 18A. Of course, Intel also has a 14A node in development. But like ex-CEO Gelsinger said, Intel has bet the company on 18A. So, it surely needs to win at least some significant business. Best CPU for gaming: Top chips from Intel and gaming motherboard: The right graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher SSD for gaming: Get into the game first. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
