Regarding market rumors that Intel may be assisted by the US governmentCollaboration with TSMCRegarding rumors of splitting its advanced process fab, Intel Chief Engineering Project Manager Joseph Bonetti posted on his personal LinkedIn that under the technological development of the 2nm process, Intel's 18A process will make faster progress than TSMC's N2 process and is expected to be officially used in the fall of this year.Laptop processor codenamed "Panther Lake".
Currently, Intel and TSMC's 2nm process technology has not yet entered mass production, but Joseph Bonetti said that Intel's 18A process will enter the market faster than TSMC's N2 process.
Both Intel and TSMC's 2nm process designs utilize all-around gate transistor technology, but Intel's 18A process also incorporates a PowerVia backplane power supply design. Intel also previously invested in ASML to purchase high-numerical-aperture extreme ultraviolet lithography equipment for its 2nm process.
Joseph Bonetti also explained that although Intel's wafer foundry business has incurred losses due to previous investments in plant construction and equipment procurement, and failed to attract cooperation from companies such as NVIDIA and Qualcomm with mature processes and sufficient trust in the early stages, Microsoft, Amazon and others are currently Intel's wafer foundry customers. It is expected that Intel will be able to use its strength to convince more companies to cooperate with Intel in the future.
At the same time, Joseph Bonetti mentioned that if Intel's wafer foundry business is transferred to TSMC, it may solve some of TSMC's current problems, but it will also have an impact on the development of the chip industry in the United States and will also be detrimental to Intel. He even believes that Intel lags behind TSMC in process technology. Therefore, he called on the US government and Intel's board of directors to avoid transferring the wafer foundry business to TSMC or giving up control.
