Intel's New CEO Explores Big Shift In Chip Manufacturing Business (reuters.com)
(Wednesday July 02, 2025 @11:30PM (BeauHD)
from the risky-business dept.)
- Reference: 0178263278
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/07/02/2149214/intels-new-ceo-explores-big-shift-in-chip-manufacturing-business
- Source link: https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/intels-new-ceo-explores-big-shift-chip-manufacturing-business-2025-07-02/
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters:
> Intel's new chief executive is exploring a big change to its contract manufacturing business to win major customers, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters, in a potentially expensive shift from his predecessor's plans. The new strategy for Intel's foundry business would mean [1]offering outside customers a newer generation of technology , the people said. That next-generation chipmaking process, analysts believe, will be more competitive against Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co in trying to land major customers such as Apple or Nvidia.
>
> Since taking the company's helm [2]in March , CEO Lip-Bu Tan has [3]moved fast to [4]cut costs and find a new path to revive the ailing U.S. chipmaker. By June, he started voicing that a manufacturing process known as 18A, in which prior CEO Pat Gelsinger had invested heavily, was losing its appeal to new customers, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. To put aside external sales of 18A and its variant 18A-P, manufacturing processes that have cost Intel billions of dollars to develop, the company would have to take a write-off, one of the people familiar with the matter said. Industry analysts contacted by Reuters said such a charge could amount to a loss of hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars.
>
> Intel declined to comment on such "hypothetical scenarios or market speculation." It said the lead customer for 18A has long been Intel itself, and it aims to ramp production of its "Panther Lake" laptop chips later in 2025, which it called the most advanced processors ever designed and manufactured in the United States. Persuading outside clients to use Intel's factories remains key to its future. As its 18A fabrication process faced delays, rival TSMC's N2 technology has been on track for production. Tan's preliminary answer to this challenge: focus more resources on 14A, a next-generation chipmaking process where Intel expects to have advantages over Taiwan's TSMC, the two sources said. The move is part of a play for big customers like Apple and Nvidia, which currently pay TSMC to manufacture their chips.
[1] https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/intels-new-ceo-explores-big-shift-chip-manufacturing-business-2025-07-02/
[2] https://slashdot.org/story/25/03/12/2118219/intel-appoints-lip-bu-tan-as-ceo
[3] https://slashdot.org/story/25/04/01/0036239/intel-ceo-lip-bu-tan-says-company-will-spin-off-non-core-units
[4] https://slashdot.org/story/25/06/16/2132227/intel-will-lay-off-15-to-20-of-its-factory-workers-memo-says
> Intel's new chief executive is exploring a big change to its contract manufacturing business to win major customers, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters, in a potentially expensive shift from his predecessor's plans. The new strategy for Intel's foundry business would mean [1]offering outside customers a newer generation of technology , the people said. That next-generation chipmaking process, analysts believe, will be more competitive against Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co in trying to land major customers such as Apple or Nvidia.
>
> Since taking the company's helm [2]in March , CEO Lip-Bu Tan has [3]moved fast to [4]cut costs and find a new path to revive the ailing U.S. chipmaker. By June, he started voicing that a manufacturing process known as 18A, in which prior CEO Pat Gelsinger had invested heavily, was losing its appeal to new customers, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. To put aside external sales of 18A and its variant 18A-P, manufacturing processes that have cost Intel billions of dollars to develop, the company would have to take a write-off, one of the people familiar with the matter said. Industry analysts contacted by Reuters said such a charge could amount to a loss of hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars.
>
> Intel declined to comment on such "hypothetical scenarios or market speculation." It said the lead customer for 18A has long been Intel itself, and it aims to ramp production of its "Panther Lake" laptop chips later in 2025, which it called the most advanced processors ever designed and manufactured in the United States. Persuading outside clients to use Intel's factories remains key to its future. As its 18A fabrication process faced delays, rival TSMC's N2 technology has been on track for production. Tan's preliminary answer to this challenge: focus more resources on 14A, a next-generation chipmaking process where Intel expects to have advantages over Taiwan's TSMC, the two sources said. The move is part of a play for big customers like Apple and Nvidia, which currently pay TSMC to manufacture their chips.
[1] https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/intels-new-ceo-explores-big-shift-chip-manufacturing-business-2025-07-02/
[2] https://slashdot.org/story/25/03/12/2118219/intel-appoints-lip-bu-tan-as-ceo
[3] https://slashdot.org/story/25/04/01/0036239/intel-ceo-lip-bu-tan-says-company-will-spin-off-non-core-units
[4] https://slashdot.org/story/25/06/16/2132227/intel-will-lay-off-15-to-20-of-its-factory-workers-memo-says
TSMC ate their lunch. (Score:2)
by ndsurvivor ( 891239 )
TMSC is eating Intels steaks, their fruits, and their veggies.
So much for "more innovation" (Score:2)
by Cyberax ( 705495 )
Pat Gelsinger tried to preserve as much of Intel as possible, even asking people to come out of retirement. Well, now the regular Wall Street managers have arrived to wring Intel out of the last drops of money.
Re: (Score:3)
by ndsurvivor ( 891239 )
This seems to me to be the product of stock buybacks. If you want to make America Great, give money to American Engineers and Scientists! I am not talking about "made up money" that Billionaires get, but money that Americans earn from productivity gains.
Reaping what they sow during the Wintel era (Score:2)
I'm surprised that x86 is still a thing. It is pretty clear that ARM chips now able to run circles around Intel chips both on the portable and the server market, especially when you consider the compute per watts.
Now, I got some Intel shares last month because, just like the big banks and the Detroit car manufacturers, I believe they are Too Big To Fail and will likely get bailed out by our tax dollars when it comes to it. I mean they first hit $20 a share in 1997, peaked at $75 in 2000, and have been mostl
Re: (Score:2)
too big to fail, is another word for Communism for the Rich. However, I believe that Intel went to Reduced Instruction Sets a long time ago, the x86 was translated, and then backed out into some stupid bytes and bits outside.
Re: (Score:1)
x86 is still the best performing CPU out there, which is ironic. It burns watts like no tomorrow, but if one wants performance, it is still top dog. I think this will probably change. China is doing incredible things with RISC-V, ARM is getting there, and Intel (IMHO) has destroyed any R&D that might give them a relevant future.
The stupid thing is that Intel had it in the bag. They had X86S, to replace the ISA with something a bit more modern, they had Optane, which fills a very important gap, they