Report: Intel struggles with new 18A process as it cuts workers and cancels projects

Intel has a lot to drive on “18A”, its new generation manufacturing process for silicon fleas which, according to the company, will help it to catch up with the competitors as TSMC have built in recent years. With 18A, Intel would amount to making its own processor conceptions in its own factories, including the next 3 -Core ultra chips series for laptops (Coded Panther Lake), after making parts from all other ultra -core chips with TSMC. Intel also offers 18A manufacturing capacity to external flea manufacturers, an important step in the plan of the old CEO Pat Gelsinger to make Intel a manufacturer of competitive, advanced flea (and mainly based in the United States) for the rest of the industry.

But a Reuters report says that Intel is struggling to make chips usable out of 18A, according to “people who have been informed of the company’s test data since the end of last year”. Since this summer, these sources indicate that only 10% of shavings made out of 18A are “up to [Intel’s] features.”

Intel challenged the figures mentioned in the report. “The yields are better than that,” the Intel financial director David Zinsner told Reuters, although neither Zinsner nor Intel provided another figure.

Whether Intel has trouble with 18a or not, the story is easy to believe because it corresponds to a model of a decade which dates back to early delays for the 14 nm of Intel process in 2013 and 2014. Intel had finally changed its range to the 14 nm process by the end of 2015, but it was then blocked on this manufacturing process for office years (2019 to 2020 for accounting chips, 2021-2022 desk).

During this period, Intel’s public relations strategy was familiar: insist that things accelerate well internally and that insects were being calculated, express confidence in the roadmap, give themselves a small room for maneuver on the launch dates of real products and continue.

In this case, Intel told Reuters that his Panther Lake chips are “entirely on the right track” on July 30. Intel reaffirmed that she would launch Panther Lake using the 18A manufacturing process in the second half of 2025, with more models to come in 2026. The plans of the company more than they have already done.