Now central to Intel’s turnaround plan, the company used its Foundry Direct Connect event to rebuild customer trust and signal progress.
“Our No. 1 job is to listen to our customers and earn their trust by creating solutions to enable their success,” said Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan.
Intel's foundry showcase saw progress on its Intel 18A process node, which is now in risk production and expected to reach volume manufacturing later this year.
Intel is banking on the 18A process to be a major driver of much-needed growth, which will feature in its upcoming Panther Lake client CPU and the data centre-focused Clearwater Forest.
The company also introduced Intel 18A-P and 18A-PT—new variants designed to expand performance and efficiency options for customers, with early wafers already in the fab.
The new units are design rule-compatible with the base 18A node, allowing IP and EDA partners to quickly adapt existing tools and flows. Intel 18A-PT is also designed to support Foveros Direct, the company’s hybrid bonding 3D stacking technology, with interconnect pitches below 5 micrometres, which is key for scaling high-performance chiplets.
On the packaging side, Intel introduced Foveros-R and Foveros-B, expanding its 3D stacking capabilities alongside EMIB-T, a new offering aimed at future high-bandwidth memory use cases.
A new tie-up with Amkor Technology was also announced, giving customers more flexibility in advanced packaging choices.
Beyond 18A, Intel said it has begun engaging lead customers on its successor, the 14A node, with early Process Design Kits already distributed and test chips planned.
Partners will help ‘win in the long term’
Intel’s foundry event also leaned heavily into ecosystem building as it tries to position itself as a credible alternative to established foundry players.
New programs under its Foundry Accelerator Alliance were announced, including the Intel Foundry Chiplet Alliance, which aims to standardise interoperable chiplet designs for commercial and government applications.
Executives from partners like Synopsys, Cadence, Siemens EDA, and PDF Solutions joined Intel on stage to underscore growing collaboration across design tools, IP, and manufacturing.
Companies like Microsoft, MediaTek, and Qualcomm also lent support during the event, with Intel keen to position its US-based foundry unit as a tariff-busting alternative.
“The work we are doing to drive an engineering-first culture across Intel while strengthening our partnerships throughout the foundry ecosystem will help us to advance our strategy, improve our execution and win in the market long term,” Tan said.
Intel's foundry business posted a 7% increase in revenue during the company's recent earnings call, rising to $4.7 billion.
The company did, however, post a net loss of $821 million for Q1 2025, though Tan described them as a “step in the right direction”.
While Intel courts customers and builds out its US foundry narrative, TSMC is already expanding its own US footprint, committing $100 billion to build new fabs in Arizona to avoid President Trump’s tariffs.
The pair could, however, come together: recent reports suggest Intel has agreed to form a foundry-focused joint venture with TSMC, with fabless giants including Nvidia, AMD, and Broadcom all approached about teaming up.
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