Intel Lands Tesla As First Major Customer For 14A Chip Technology (yahoo.com)
(Thursday April 23, 2026 @11:00AM (BeauHD)
from the lifeline-received dept.)
- Reference: 0181885118
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/04/23/0442209/intel-lands-tesla-as-first-major-customer-for-14a-chip-technology
- Source link: https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/technology/articles/intel-lands-key-first-customer-for-14a-chip-tech-with-teslas-terafab-project-musk-says-222942947.html
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters:
> Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Wednesday the EV maker [1]plans to use Intel's next-generation 14A manufacturing process to make chips at [2]its Terafab project , an advanced AI chip complex Musk has envisioned in Austin. The contract would mark Intel's first major customer for the technology, a breakthrough for the chipmaker which has struggled to stand up its contract manufacturing business essential for taking on top rival TSMC. Intel CEO Lip Bu Tan has said that the company would exit the chip manufacturing business altogether if it failed to secure an external customer.
>
> Intel has previously said it was in discussions with large customers about 14A, but has not yet disclosed a major external customer. It declined to comment on Musk's remarks. [...] "Given that by the time Terafab scales up, 14A will be probably fairly mature or ready for prime time," Musk said. "14A seems like the right move, and we have a great relationship with Intel," he said. Ben Bajarin, head of technology consultancy Creative Strategies, said that Intel's 14A technology could "turn out to be a bigger deal for Intel than folks thought." "It's important to have multiple partners as early design partners to help clean the pipe and work through needed learnings at the leading edge. They will definitely have scale, so a great first non-Intel customer," Bajarin said.
>
> Seaport Research Partners analyst Jay Goldberg said Musk's vote of confidence in Intel's technology outweighed the unknowns about the Terafab project. "Having a customer is more important than the timing," he said. Goldberg said that Musk's lofty estimates of how many chips its robots could one day require may or may not materialize, but even making chips for Tesla's existing businesses would be a significant win for Intel. "It's not equivalent to Apple or Nvidia" in terms of chip volumes, Goldberg said. "But it's a real customer. It can be real volumes."
[1] https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/technology/articles/intel-lands-key-first-customer-for-14a-chip-tech-with-teslas-terafab-project-musk-says-222942947.html
[2] https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/03/22/2151236/elon-musk-announces-20b-terafab-chip-plant-in-texas-to-supply-his-companies
> Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Wednesday the EV maker [1]plans to use Intel's next-generation 14A manufacturing process to make chips at [2]its Terafab project , an advanced AI chip complex Musk has envisioned in Austin. The contract would mark Intel's first major customer for the technology, a breakthrough for the chipmaker which has struggled to stand up its contract manufacturing business essential for taking on top rival TSMC. Intel CEO Lip Bu Tan has said that the company would exit the chip manufacturing business altogether if it failed to secure an external customer.
>
> Intel has previously said it was in discussions with large customers about 14A, but has not yet disclosed a major external customer. It declined to comment on Musk's remarks. [...] "Given that by the time Terafab scales up, 14A will be probably fairly mature or ready for prime time," Musk said. "14A seems like the right move, and we have a great relationship with Intel," he said. Ben Bajarin, head of technology consultancy Creative Strategies, said that Intel's 14A technology could "turn out to be a bigger deal for Intel than folks thought." "It's important to have multiple partners as early design partners to help clean the pipe and work through needed learnings at the leading edge. They will definitely have scale, so a great first non-Intel customer," Bajarin said.
>
> Seaport Research Partners analyst Jay Goldberg said Musk's vote of confidence in Intel's technology outweighed the unknowns about the Terafab project. "Having a customer is more important than the timing," he said. Goldberg said that Musk's lofty estimates of how many chips its robots could one day require may or may not materialize, but even making chips for Tesla's existing businesses would be a significant win for Intel. "It's not equivalent to Apple or Nvidia" in terms of chip volumes, Goldberg said. "But it's a real customer. It can be real volumes."
[1] https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/technology/articles/intel-lands-key-first-customer-for-14a-chip-tech-with-teslas-terafab-project-musk-says-222942947.html
[2] https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/03/22/2151236/elon-musk-announces-20b-terafab-chip-plant-in-texas-to-supply-his-companies
Next year... (Score:2)
by stealth_finger ( 1809752 )
This'll be ready next year, right?
Grifty grifty (Score:2)
Yet another market manipulation grift from Musk. There is no reality in which this is going to happen. His entire premise of bring all of this under one roof is ridiculous (the chemicals required to make masks, make cpus and make RAM are all incompatible and therefore need to be environmentally isolated) and show a lack of even a laymans understanding of the processes involved. Also, Intel it probably the worst partner to bring in for technical advice given they consistenly have failed at production proc