[News] Intel Says 18A May Reach Strong Margins by 2027; Notebook Chips on the Node Mark Fastest Ramp in 5 Years

Intel is betting heavily on 18A to support the company’s turnaround plan. According to The Register, Chief Financial Officer David Zinsner said that early last year Intel faced the challenge of trying to improve both performance and yield at the same time. The company later shifted its focus to stabilizing performance first, and with that objective largely achieved, it is now concentrating on improving yield month by month.

Zinsner said Intel’s goal is to achieve yield levels that support strong margins, adding that the company is currently ahead of schedule to reach that target by the end of 2027, as the report highlights. He added that after Lip-Bu Tan joined the company, Intel began sharing more manufacturing data with its vendors. The increased collaboration helped improve yields and made a dramatic difference.

Looking beyond 18A, Zinsner also expressed confidence in Intel’s 14A. According to the report, he said the company has adopted a more aggressive approach than it did with 18A, adding that yield and performance metrics are currently ahead of where 18A was at the same stage of development.

Intel 3 and 18A Supply Set to Rise Amid Strong CPU Demand

In addition to providing an update on Intel’s manufacturing roadmap, Zinsner highlighted growing supply from Intel 3 and 18A, according to Seeking Alpha. As cited by the report, he said Intel expects a meaningful increase in supply from both Intel 3 and 18A over the coming quarters to meet rising demand. He added that 18A-based notebook processors are ramping quickly and represent the company’s fastest-ramping product launch in at least the past five years.

The company is also seeing rising CPU demand. According to The Register, Zinsner said it remains difficult to predict the full extent of future growth, but he expects the market to be substantial. He said the key challenge at present is supply, adding that Intel sees sufficient demand in the market and should be able to grow data center revenue meaningfully if it executes successfully on planned supply ramps.

Read more

• [News] Intel Won’t Discontinue Raptor Lake DDR4 Models, Supports Lower-Memory Configurations Amid Shortages
• [News] Intel Lip-Bu Tan Reflects on Taiwan’s Semiconductor Journey, Highlights AI and 18A Roadmap at COMPUTEX

(Photo credit: Intel)