Milestones
- 'Five nodes in four years' plan announcedJul 2021Complete.
- PowerVia test chip resultsJun 2023Complete.
- First Panther Lake silicon powered onAug 2024Complete.
- Fab 52 in Arizona fully operational9 Oct 2025Complete.
- Panther Lake (Core Ultra series 3) launchedJan 2026+12 mo
originally 2025Complete. - Clearwater Forest Xeon 6+ rampTarget 2026Current milestone.
- 18A-P available to foundry customersTarget 2026Not yet reached.
Most important updates
- Jan 2026
- 9 Oct 2025
- Apr 2025
- 16 Sep 2024
Upcoming
- 2026Clearwater Forest Xeon 6+ ramp (next)
- 202618A-P available to foundry customers
Current obstacles
- Thermal and debug challenges of backside powerWith wiring on both sides, removing heat and finding faults gets harder. Intel built new test methods.
- External adoptionFew big outside customers have committed to 18A, limiting volume.
Physics limits
- Leakage at nanometre scalesGate insulators are about a nanometre thick and channels a few nanometres long, so electrons tunnel and 'off' transistors leak. Wrapping the gate around each ribbon claws back control but can't remove the effect.
- Voltage has stopped fallingAt room temperature a transistor needs at least about 60 mV of gate swing to change its current tenfold, a thermal limit. Supply voltage has stalled near 0.7 V, so energy per operation now falls slowly.
- Backside power makes heat harder to removeWith power wires under the transistors and signal wires above, the transistor layer is sandwiched and the wafer thinned almost to the devices. Heat has a harder path out, raising hot-spot temperatures.
How it works
Ribbons
Gate wraps each ribbon
4 stacked silicon ribbons carry current. The gate surrounds each one to stop leaks better than a fin.
Backside
Power from underneath
The wafer is flipped and thinned, then power lines are built on its back.
Tiles
Disaggregated products
Panther Lake joins the 18A compute piece with pieces from other processes in one 3D package.
Spec sheet
| Spec | Intel 18A | Intel 3 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transistor | RibbonFET (4 ribbons)R (reported) | FinFET | —no comparable change |
| Power delivery | PowerVia backsideR (reported) | Front side | —no comparable change |
| Perf/W vs Intel 3 | Up to +15%R (reported) | — | —no comparable change |
| Density vs Intel 3 | Up to +30%R (reported) | — | —no comparable change |
| Lead fab | Fab 52, Chandler, ArizonaR (reported) | — | —no comparable change |
R reported by the company
Papers & demos
- Jun 2023paperPowerVia backside power test chip (VLSI Symposium 2023)First demo of back-side power wiring on a realistic test chip.
Update log
Jan 2026
- Major: PressHardware
Thu 9 Oct 2025
- Major: PressManufacturing
Apr 2025
- Minor: PressManufacturing
Mon 16 Sep 2024
- Major: PressCommercial
About Intel
Intel
PC and server CPUs, Intel Foundry, 18A, 14A
Intel, founded in 1968, invented the commercial microprocessor. After falling behind TSMC in chipmaking, it is trying to catch up with its 18A node and win outside customers for its factories. In 2025 the US government took about a 10% stake.
- Panther Lake, the first 18A chip, launched in January 2026 from Fab 52 in Arizona.
- US government took about 9.9% in Aug 2025. NVIDIA ($5B) and SoftBank ($2B) also invested.
- Lip-Bu Tan became CEO in March 2025 and cut costs and jobs sharply.
- Founded
- 196858 yrs
- Headquarters
- United States
- Status
- Public
- Listed
- INTC (opens google.com)NASDAQ
- Valuation
- public
- Staff
- ~108,900Dec 2024
- Raised
- $7B2 rounds
- Last round
- Strategic investment · $5BSep 2025
- Works in
- ComputingChip factories (foundries)QuantumManufacturing
- Coverage
- 3 programs · 16 updateslatest 1 Jan 2026checked 25 Sep
- Lead investors
- NVIDIAUS GovernmentSoftBank
- Investors
- US Government (opens intc.com)NVIDIA
- Suppliers
- ASML
- People
- Lip-Bu Tan (opens en.wikipedia.org)CEONaga ChandrasekaranCTO and COO, Intel Foundry