[News] Intel Gains Momentum: 18A Eyes Apple, EMIB Reportedly Tapped for Google-MediaTek TPUs

Intel is gaining momentum, reportedly locking in major orders from tech giants amid backing from Washington and NVIDIA, boosting market confidence. According to Tom’s Hardware and Commercial Times, Apple is eyeing Intel’s 18A node for M-series chips as soon as 2027, while MediaTek is exploring EMIB advanced packaging to secure additional capacity.

Intel 18A Breakthrough: Ending Apple Exclusion Since 2023?

Tom’s Hardware, citing well-known analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, notes that Apple has signed an NDA with Intel and received the 18AP PDK 0.9.1GA. Notably, if timelines hold, Intel could start shipping production silicon by mid- to late-2027—marking the first Apple chips fabricated by Intel since the Cupertino company fully cut ties in late 2023, the report highlights.

Industry experts cited by Commercial Times say Apple now has clear incentives to adopt Intel’s 18A node: the move would be symbolic, potentially breaking TSMC’s long-held exclusivity over Apple’s silicon. Beyond the industry norm of cultivating a second supplier, the push also aligns with Trump-era calls to expand U.S. manufacturing, the report adds.

Commercial Times highlights a potential game-changer: Intel’s 18A process is maturing faster than expected. While the industry feared that launching RibbonFET and PowerVia together would slow yields, back-side power delivery has cut EUV steps, boosting cost efficiency. According to The Guru of 3D, Intel applies EUV lithography to the first five metal layers of 18A chips, slashing production steps by 42 % and improving efficiency while lowering error risk.

Meanwhile, Commercial Times adds that Intel is stacking four nanosheets, a more complex design, to push transistor performance higher. As TechNews explains, Intel’s 18A RibbonFET uses a four-layer nanoribbon structure and supports up to eight different logic threshold voltages (VT)—four for NMOS and four for PMOS—spanning a range of 180 millivolts (mV).

Intel’s 18A hit production in October and has now ramped to high-volume manufacturing, Commercial Times reports. Supply-chain sources cited by the report say the first Panther Lake SKU will launch before year-end, with shipments starting early next year. Some customers are already partnering with Intel on 14A development, keeping the most advanced nodes from depending on a single supplier, the report adds.

EMIB Boosts Package Size and Cuts Costs

On the other hand, Intel is making progress on EMIB, the company’s ultra-large packaging solution. According to TrendForce, EMIB enables larger effective reticle-size scaling: while CoWoS-S is limited to 3.3× and CoWoS-L is approximately 3.5× (projected to reach 9× by 2027), EMIB-M already supports 6× and is anticipated to achieve 8–12× by 2026–2027. Meanwhile, TrendForce notes that by eliminating the interposer, EMIB provides a more cost-effective solution for AI customers requiring very large packages.

Thus, TrendForce notes that EMIB is poised to drive significant growth for Intel Foundry Services (IFS), as Google plans to adopt the technology in its 2027 TPU v9 and Meta considers it for MTIA accelerators.

Commercial Times adds that MediaTek is tapping Intel’s advanced EMIB-T packaging to secure more capacity. With Google reportedly increasing TPU shipments and TSMC’s CoWoS capacity still tight, industry sources say MediaTek is recruiting engineers with EMIB experience. The plan, as per the report, would be taking TSMC 2nm and 3nm dies and package them using Intel EMIB-T, which supports large-die configurations up to 120×180 mm—effectively linking Intel and MediaTek to Google’s AI accelerator supply chain.

Read more

• [News] Intel’s EMIB Reportedly Gains Traction with AI ASIC, Smartphone Clients, Could Package TSMC Dies
• [News] Intel Advanced Packaging Reportedly Gains Traction, with Apple and Qualcomm Seeking EMIB Expertise

(Photo credit: Intel)