Available later this year, 18A has taken advantage of two manufacturing techniques that TSMC does not yet use: transistors to all additions and rear power. Intel claims that technologies will improve the performance and efficiency of its chips.
But Intel not only uses 18A to recover its place as a manufacturer of leading chips. The company is also underway on the use of technology to move into the manufacturing activities of TSMC contracts by building fleas based on 18A for itself and personalized versions for third-party customers.
Until now, Amazon and Microsoft have signed to build their own chips using the 18A process of Intel, with the hope that others will follow. But the financial director David Zinsner says that third -party commitments are “not yet significant”, According to Reuters.
Intel 18A is so important because it presents both two technologies from the company’s chips. First of all, he takes advantage of the transistors at lengthening – New generation transistors This can more actively control the flow of electricity through a chip. It also uses a technique called Power backside, which changes where and how the power is delivered to the transistors of a chip to allow more efficiency and better performance.
The CEO of Intel Lip-Bu Tan appears during an event organized by the company in San Jose, California (Andrej Sokolow / Picture Alliance via Getty Images) ·Picture Alliance via Getty Images
But TSMC overturned the script in 2019 when it became the first To successfully use the advanced Tamias manufacturing technology called EUV lithography – Massive machines with a value of hundreds of millions of dollars- to make semiconductors, which helped him pass beyond Intel and to make the most advanced IA fleas in the world for companies like Apple and Nvidia.
That’s not all. Intel also had to delay the deployment of 18A from the first half of 2025 to the second half, according to the previous calls for the company.
Try to perfect both the rear power and the transistors to all anounds introduce both a greater manufacturing complexity and a larger place for the error.
“These two technologies (are) extremely complex on (their) own,” said Chris Miller, author of “Chip War”, told Yahoo Finance. “It is therefore even more difficult to do them simultaneously.”
An Employee of the Manufacturing of the Intel Foundry in Oregon told Yahoo Finance under the cover of anonymity that technology was not ready for external customers in December. In a follow -up interview in March, however, they said that 18A “improved a lot” and that Intel employees are “optimistic” on this subject.
Another employee of manufacturing the FAB said that 18A was “on the right track”. However, they feared that Intel’s planned layoffs could press morale and hinder their work to take out the process.
TSMC is not seated, however. The company also launches Gate-All-Aound transistors thanks to its N2 technology, which it plans to publish later this year. It also works to add backward power to its chips in 2026.
Make sure that work 18a is only part of the equation. Intel must also prove that it can register customers to take advantage of technology for their own chips and can pump them into the volumes they need.
“Can they do it? Yes, they can do it,” said Vivek Arya, analyst of Bank of America. “But can they do it with the type of yield and scale like TSMC? That, I think, remains to be seen.”
Various analysts called Intel to abandon its third foundry and even to get out of the flea manufacturing company entirely and to stick to the design of semiconductors like Rivals AMD and NVIDIA.
But as Intel is the only manufacturer of high-scale advanced fleas in the United States, the government wants to keep its manufacturing arm intact. Intel obtained funding of $ 7.8 billion in financing the American flea law and abandon your foundry would endanger this funding.
“The United States does not want to be exclusively dependent on foreign companies for advanced production and R&D. At the moment, Intel is the only company with advanced R&D in the United States,” said author Chris Miller.
While TSMC is expanding its American footprint, investing $ 165 billion in new factories and research facilities during the coming year, only a third of its most advanced chippe manufacturing will take place in the United States, the company said during an April call with investors.
However, Vivek Aya of Bank of America said that the American expansion of TSMC “is enriching Intel’s advantage to a certain extent”.
For Intel, it all amounts to proving that 18A can succeed. We will know it later this year.
Register for Yahoo Finance Week in Tech Newsletter. ·yahofinance
Laura Bratton is Yahoo Finance journalist. Follow it on Bluesky @ laurabratton.bsky.social. Send him an email to laura.bratton@yahoinc.com.
Send an email to Daniel Howley to dhowley@yahofinance.com. Follow him on X / Twitter at @Danielhowley.
