Intel 18A Process Technology Interests AMD, Broadcom, and Nvidia — Companies Test Prototype Chips

Back in May 2023, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang praised Intel’s then-current process technologies, and now Reuters reports that Nvidia, together with Broadcom, is trying to understand, based on the results of practical tests, whether Intel can be entrusted with contract production of its own promising products.

Image source: Broadcom

Sources familiar with the matter explain that Nvidia and Broadcom are testing prototypes of products manufactured for them by Intel. AMD, a direct competitor to Intel, is also allegedly trying to understand whether it should order the production of its chips using the promising 18A technology. Intel representatives predictably did not provide Reuters with comments on their relationships with customers, but emphasized that interest in Intel’s 18A process technology is growing among participants in the company’s ecosystem.

Tests by Intel’s potential customers are not conducted on highly complex products, but on simpler silicon wafers manufactured using Intel’s 18A process. The goal of such experiments is to determine the physical properties and characteristics of potential products manufactured using this process. Such tests can last for several months, and it is difficult to determine when they will begin or end.

Last year, there were already reports of Broadcom’s disappointment in the level of good product yields using Intel’s 18A technology. Perhaps, in a new version of its implementation, this process technology is again of interest to Broadcom. Intel has so far only confirmed the existence of an agreement to produce chips using 18A technology for Microsoft and Amazon (AWS), but has not gone into detail on this matter.

According to information available to Reuters, Intel initially delayed the release of contract products for third-party customers using 18A technology until 2026, and recently moved the deadline by another six months. The reason for the delay was the difficulties in adapting the intellectual property of customers to the features of Intel’s 18A process technology. In such cases, the contract chip manufacturer undertakes to guarantee that the solutions developed by the customer will work when implemented on its process technology. Intel itself claims that it will receive approved chip designs from customers this year, and will begin producing chips using 18A technology for its own needs in the second half of this year.

The management of Synopsys, a company that specializes in chip design software, rates Intel’s 18A process technology quite highly. According to this Intel partner, this process technology is somewhere between the most advanced process technology of competitor TSMC and its predecessor. For now, Intel’s manufacturing division receives the vast majority of its revenue from itself, and without large third-party orders, it will not be able to get out of the red. In a favorable scenario, Intel Foundry expects to get rid of losses no earlier than 2027.