Latest news with #MeteorLake
Business Insider
17-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
‘Hold Your Horses Ahead of Earnings,' Says Christopher Rolland About Intel Stock
It's well known that Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) has had a tough few years, falling behind in chip manufacturing, losing market share in CPUs, and struggling to keep up in fast-growing areas like AI and data centers. Investors are pinning their hopes on recent leadership changes and efforts to streamline operations. However, the company still faces big challenges in delivering on its plans and staying competitive with strong rivals like Nvidia and AMD. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. Make smarter investment decisions with TipRanks' Smart Investor Picks, delivered to your inbox every week. That's why all eyes will be on the fallen chip giant next Thursday (July 24), when it reports Q2 earnings, a key moment that could offer clues about whether Intel's turnaround efforts are starting to gain traction. But for those hoping to see early signs of real progress, disappointment may be in store. Assessing Intel's situation, Susquehanna's Christopher Rolland, an analyst ranked amongst the top 2% of Wall Street stock experts, thinks that 'tariff-related PC pull-ins' likely extended into early Q2, before tapering off later in the quarter. Still, there are some incremental positives. Average selling prices (ASPs) seem to be rising modestly quarter-over-quarter, helped by early gains in AI PC adoption. Lunar Lake laptops climbed 1.5% to around 2.2% share, Arrow Lake desktops also rose 1.5% to roughly 2.3%, and Meteor Lake laptops increased 1% to reach 12% share. Even so, demand remains skewed toward older process nodes – Intel 7 still accounts for about 55% of both laptop and desktop shipments. According to Rolland, this points to 'ongoing problem for capacity shortages at older nodes that may limit revenue upside.' Meanwhile, competitive pressures continue to mount, especially in the PC market. Intel is losing ground in the notebook space, where AMD is gaining momentum at OEMs like Dell. Rolland expects Intel's Client Computing Group (CCG) to post a 5% quarter-over-quarter decline, in line with consensus. However, he cautions that demand pull-forward and persistent market share erosion could dampen performance in the second half, potentially leading to a softer-than-usual seasonal outlook. Feedback from the server channel was somewhat more encouraging, but here, too, Intel is feeling the squeeze. AMD is taking share in critical segments, including China, enterprise customers like Dell, and U.S. hyperscalers. While Intel CPUs are still widely used in AI systems such as Nvidia's DGX, Rolland remains cautious about the shift toward Nvidia's Grace architecture and the upcoming GB200 platform. In Foundry, CEO Lip-Bu Tan might be redirecting efforts from the 18A node toward 14A, amid reports that 18A could be dropped for external customers. For Q2, the Foundry guide was lowered due to reduced wafer volume and ongoing 7nm capacity constraints. Rolland expects Q2 gross margins to be roughly in line with the lowered guide (down 270 basis points sequentially) as Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake ramp up, both relying on costly TSMC tiles. Looking ahead, the road to margin recovery remains bumpy. Server-side pressures, soft AI PC adoption, high production costs, and the fact that Panther Lake isn't expected to scale meaningfully until 2026 all pose ongoing challenges. Finally, Rolland continues to hear of layoffs at Intel, which could point to operating expense reductions beyond the $17 billion already targeted for the year – a 'favorable sign.' 'In short,' Rolland summed up, 'we expect Intel to post generally in-line results, but weaker guidance for 3Q/2H as tariff-related PC pull-ins in 1Q begin to fade, GB200/Grace ramps, and AMD continues to win PC/Server share.' Bottom line, ahead of the print, Rolland rates INTC shares a Neutral, while his $22 price target suggests the stock will stay range-bound for the foreseeable future. (To watch Rolland's track record, click here) According to TipRanks database, the INTC fence indeed appears the place to be right now; the stock claims a Hold (i.e., Neutral) consensus view, based on a mix of 26 Holds, 4 Sells and just a single Buy. Going by the $21.60 average price target, the shares will see a downside of ~5% over the coming months. (See INTC stock forecast) To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks' Best Stocks to Buy, a tool that unites all of TipRanks' equity insights.
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Yahoo
Intel Nova Lake CPUs reportedly get a GPU overhaul — Xe3 Celestial and Xe4 Druid IPs used for graphics, media, and display
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Intel's upcoming Nova Lake chips are expected to advance their modular design philosophy by bringing together future Xe3 and Xe4 IPs to handle different engines on the chip. Jaykihn, an avid Intel leaker, asserts that Nova Lake-S will allegedly use Celestial for its graphics engine. At the same time, Druid will handle media and display functions, likely on a separate SoC Tile. The disaggregated chiplet design, introduced for consumers with Meteor Lake, provides Intel with the flexibility to manufacture less critical chip elements using mature and cheaper fabrication nodes. Meteor Lake splits the media and display capabilities from core graphics. The media and display units were placed on a separate System-on-Chip (SoC) chiplet, manufactured using TSMC's N6 process, while the graphics engine resided on a separate tile produced with TSMC's N5 technology. A similar strategy has been observed in Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake, however, Nova Lake reportedly is poised to advance Intel's chiplet approach by using separate and specialized IPs for these blocks. Jaykihn claims that the integrated graphics (iGPU) on Nova Lake-S (S: Desktop) will be powered by Xe3 (Celestial), meanwhile, the graphics and media engine move to the more advanced Xe4 (Druid). This means that while the integrated GPU will be impressive, the most notable improvements could be in hardware codec support, owing to the shift to a next-generation architecture. Meanwhile, Bionic_Squash reports that the graphics engine will utilize a slightly modified version of Xe3, for better or worse. Should it be an improvement over vanilla Xe3, which we'll see in Panther Lake, it might be comparable to the evolution from Meteor Lake's Xe-LPG to Arrow Lake's Xe-LPG+ (mobile-only), the latter of which introduced XMX engines. Beyond Nova Lake, this is a positive indication for future graphics products from Intel. We could see the first Druid-powered engines by as early as 2026, while Celestial, which is already undergoing pre-validation, is slated to power Panther Lake CPUs next year. It is plausible to say Nova Lake might serve as a test vehicle for Druid, serving as a precursor to a full-fledged product in the future that employs Druid graphics as well. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Intel's AI PC chips aren't selling well — instead, old Raptor Lake chips boom
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Credit: Intel Times are already tough for Intel, but now it turns out its new, heavily-promoted AI PC chips aren't selling as well as expected, thus creating a shortage of production capacity for its older chips. The news comes as the CEO announced looming layoffs and a poor financial report sent the company's stock tumbling. Intel says its customers are buying less expensive previous-generation Raptor Lake chips instead of the new, and significantly more expensive, AI PC models like the Lunar Lake and Meteor Lake chips for laptops. During the earnings call, Intel announced that it currently faces a shortage of production capacity for its 'Intel 7' process node, and the company expects this shortage to "persist for the foreseeable future." That's an unexpected shortage to have, as Intel's current-gen chips use newer process nodes from TSMC instead of Intel's older 'Intel 7' node. Intel is a master at production capacity planning, so its disclosure points to an unexpected surge in sales of the older 'Intel 7' products. Intel explained that the shortage of its 7nm production capacity is due to an unexpected surge in demand for its "N-1 and N-2" products, a reference to its two prior-generation chip families. This trend is occurring in both the consumer and data center markets. "What we're really seeing is much greater demand from our customers for n-1 and n-2 products so that they can continue to deliver system price points that consumers are really demanding," explained Intel's Michelle Johnston Holthaus. "As we've all talked about, the macroeconomic concerns and tariffs have everybody kind of hedging their bets and what they need to have from an inventory perspective. And Raptor Lake is a great part. Meteor Lake and Lunar Lake are great as well, but come with a much higher cost structure, not only for us, but at the system ASP price points for our OEMs as well." Bernstein Research's Stacy Rasgon pressed Holtahaus about the implications for the company's upcoming Panther Lake chips, which are set to launch at the end of the year, especially given that the looming tariff disruptions have not yet occurred. Holthaus said the Panther Lake launch remains on track and the company expects continued success in the commercial market, which she said typically precedes broader consumer adoption. Notably, she did not directly address the company's expected next-gen AI PC adoption for consumer laptops. Regardless, the company also continues its expansive work to promote and cultivate a growing developer ecosystem to unleash the power of its AI wares.
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Tariffs Are Impacting Intel in an Unexpected Way
While there are some ways semiconductor giant Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) could benefit from the Trump administration's tariff policies and push to bring manufacturing back to the United States, the company is unlikely to be a trade war winner. Economic uncertainty could push down demand for PCs and lead data center operators to pull back on capital spending, bad news for Intel's core CPU business. Intel's guidance for the second quarter reflects the high level of uncertainty surrounding demand for its products. The company sees revenue coming within a wide range between $11.2 billion and $12.4 billion, down from the $12.7 billion in revenue produced in the first quarter. CFO Davis Zinsner noted in the first-quarter earnings call that the risk of a recession was growing amid the trade turmoil. Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue » One surprise that came out of Intel's first-quarter report was a shift in demand in the laptop market to models powered by Intel's older products. In the consumer laptop market, the company is seeing an uptick in demand for Raptor Lake systems and a weakening in demand for Meteor Lake and Lunar Lake systems. Intel's Meteor Lake and Lunar Lake chips are more efficient and enable longer battery lives than their predecessors, but systems built around these chips also have higher price points. Intel noted that OEMs are focusing on lower-priced systems to counter the uncertain economic environment. There's a silver lining to this shift in demand to older laptop CPUs: A boost to the gross margin. Intel's Raptor Lake chips are manufactured in-house on the mature Intel 7 process node, which is derived from Intel's 10nm technology. In contrast, Meteor Lake uses the newer Intel 4 process, the ramping of which hurt margins as the company moved production to Ireland. Lunar Lake is even worse for the bottom line because it's largely outsourced to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and includes integrated memory. The downside is that Intel only has so much Intel 7 production capacity. Running those production lines at full capacity makes the company's foundries more efficient and helps with the gross margin, but Intel just can't produce enough of its older Raptor Lake chips to meet demand. Zinsner expects Intel 7 capacity constraints to persist "for the foreseeable future." Laptops with Intel's newer chips are doing better in the commercial PC market, where the end of Windows 10 support is driving demand for new systems. The company expects this strong demand to eventually flow into the consumer market, but the state of the economy is a wildcard. How this demand dynamic in the consumer market impacts the upcoming launch of Panther Lake remains to be seen. Intel plans to launch some of its Panther Lake SKUs before the end of the year, built on its new Intel 18A process node, with the rest coming in early 2026. Panther Lake is meant to be both powerful and efficient, and it will benefit from Intel's most advanced manufacturing process. Since Panther Lake will shift more production in-house, the gross margin situation should be improved compared to Lunar Lake. However, the gross margin for the product will also depend on how well the Intel 18A ramp goes and the yields the company is able to achieve. If economic conditions deteriorate in the lead up to Panther Lake's launch, Panther Lake-based systems will need to be able to span a wide range of price points to succeed in what will likely be a tough consumer PC market. While the increase in demand for Intel's older laptop CPUs is helping the bottom line, the company needs Panther Lake to be a success as it tries to turn around its products business and make its nascent foundry a success. A lot is riding on the Intel 18A process node, and the Trump administration's tariff policies are making Intel's turnaround more difficult. Before you buy stock in Intel, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Intel wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $594,046!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $680,390!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 872% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 160% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of April 28, 2025 Timothy Green has positions in Intel. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: short May 2025 $30 calls on Intel. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Tariffs Are Impacting Intel in an Unexpected Way was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Intel's elderly Raptor Lake CPUs are still selling surprisingly well and the reason is simple: They're cheap
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Given they're over two and half years old and plagued with reliability concerns, you might be surprised to learn that Intel's Raptor Lake CPUs are selling like high-temperature baked comestibles. That's according to Intel itself in its latest earnings call for investors. Raptor Lake refers to Intel's 13th and 14th Gen CPUs for mobile and desktop. Michelle Johnston Holdhaus, CEO of Intel Products, explained that cost is the driving factor behind the ongoing success of these chips, which first went on sale in October 2022, a relative age ago by the standards of computer chips. "We're not pushing the old parts based on margins. What we're really seeing is much greater demand from our customers for N minus one and N minus two [referring to the two previous generations of CPUs before Intel's current Arrow Lake, meteor Lake and Lunar Lake processor families] products, so that they can continue to deliver system price points that consumers are really demanding. As we've all talked about, the macroeconomic concerns and tariffs have everybody kind of hedging their bets in what they need to have from an inventory perspective. And Raptor Lake is a great part," Holdhaus says. She also emphasised that Intel's newer Meteor Lake and Lunar Lake CPUs, "come with a much higher cost structure." While Holdhaus didn't say so specifically, calling out Meteor Lake and Lunar Lake, which are both exclusively offered in mobile format, but not mentioning Arrow Lake, which is available as both a desktop and a laptop CPU, suggests that it's Raptor Lake chips for laptops that have been selling surprisingly well, late into the generation's life cycle. That said, it's worth remembering that Raptor Lake's long sales tail isn't entirely novel. When a new generation of CPU is launched, it doesn't immediately replace its predecessor in its entirety. At any one time, Intel will be manufacturing several generations of chips in parallel. As a new generation arrives, it will gradually ramp up in volume, while numbers produced of its predecessors may be maintained for a time before eventually tailing off. That's especially true if the latest generation is based on a new silicon node, which itself needs to be ramped up before sufficient volumes can be produced to fully replace older generations of chips. To put this all into context, Intel is in fact still producing CPUs from the even older Alder Lake generation, which went on sale in November 2021. Intel stopped taking orders for Alder Lake CPUs in January, but said production would continue until 23 January 2026. So, you might expect Intel to keep making Raptor Lake CPUs until early 2027. Of late, that ramp-and-replace cadence has become more complex thanks to Intel moving some of its production to the Taiwanese chip foundry TSMC. Raptor Lake is built on Intel's internal Intel 7 node and built from a single chip or silicon die. Meteor Lake, Lunar Lake, and Arrow Lake, by contrast, are all chiplet designs made of multiple dies, or tiles in Intel parlance. Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake logic chiplets are made entirely by TSMC, while Meteor Lake CPUs are mostly made by TSMC, but with the Intel 4 process used for the die containing CPU cores. Your next upgrade Best CPU for gaming: The top chips from Intel and gaming motherboard: The right graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher SSD for gaming: Get into the game ahead of the rest. Certainly, if you browse the websites of many big laptops brands, you'll still find plenty of laptops with Intel H series Raptor Lake CPUs, such as the Core i7-13620H. It tends to be mainstream products offered at lower price points which use the older chips, just as Intel implies. Laptops with higher price tags that offer either extreme performance or ultra-slim form factors are more likely to use the latest chips, which deliver either more grunt or better efficiency. Likewise, if we are indeed talking about laptops exclusively, then the well-documented issues suffered predominantly by desktop members of the Raptor Lake generation are by definition less relevant. Sign in to access your portfolio
