In order to save the increasingly weak market competition, Intel's new executive director Chen Liwu recently announced that he would consider the 14A process to convert the 14A process, but at the 24th financial conference, Chen Liwu revealed th...
In order to save the increasingly weak market competition, Intel's new executive director Chen Liwu recently announced that he would consider the 14A process to convert the 14A process, but at the 24th financial conference, Chen Liwu revealed that if major external customers cannot be obtained or key development milestones, Intel may slow down or even cancel the 14A process (1.4 nanometers) development.
The news is the first time Intel has admitted to withdrawing from the advanced semiconductor technology competition, and may hand over leading process technology to rival rivals Taiwan Electricity (TSMC) and Samsung.
As Intel 18A technology lagging competition rivals, Chen Liwu took over Intel's rear-end transformation and planned to give up the 18A process that has been developed with bets and focus on the next generation of 14A advanced processes, aiming to serve internal products and attract large external customers such as Apple and NVIDIA.
However, Chen Liwu, the financial report meeting of the 24th, stated that if the 14A process fails to attract a major external customer or achieves key progress, it may stop developing. This strategy changes show that Intel is quite cautious in its attitude. The next generation of new technologies must first demonstrate business feasibility before the development and purchase of equipment.
Since 14A is expected to be the first process to use High NA EUV lithography technology, the cost of purchasing 2 High NA EUV equipment for 14A processes is as high as US$760 million. Chen Liwu emphasized that 14A development is important for Intel's capital expenditure decisions, so internal and external customer demand and production must be ensured. The development cost of modern advanced process technology is as high as US$1 billion. For example, Intel's R&D expenditure in 2024 reached 165.46 billion US dollars, most of which are used in the development of process technologies such as 18A, 18A-P and 14A.
If Intel finally cancels the main investment of the 14A process, it is expected to continue to produce 18A-P products that support diverse supply, but may also affect the company's profitability, as the first-class products are handed over to external OEM factories for production.
Intel will cancel 14A and following nodes if it can’t win a major external customer — move would cede leading-edge nodes to TSMC and Samsung Extended reading: Shocked! Chen Liwu terrorizes and promotes Intel 18A, and strives to develop Intel 14A Telco advanced process has built a huge door, and Intel Intel 18A and 14A will not be used by customers before 2028
