Intel will use TSMC's 2nm process in "Nova Lake" CPU, and Apple is also one of its major customers

According to Taiwan Economic Daily, TSMC's first batch of 2-nanometer chips are expected to be put into production in 2025, and Apple, Intel and other companies are said to be interested in them. Since Apple has been an exclusive customer of TSMC, the company is said to have managed to reserve some of the 2nm capacity for its next-generation iPhone. As previously stated, we may see the debut of the process on Apple's iPhone 17 Pro, and if the company sticks to its current naming scheme, the new process will be used for the follow-up to the A-series SoC.

According to reports, in addition to Apple, Intel may also join TSMC's 2nm customer list, as the company is expected to use it for its future Nova Lake CPU lineup. The industry has not mentioned much about NovaLake, mainly because it will take some time for its release, but not long ago, the famous software application HWiNFO added support for this series of integrated graphics cards, allowing us to see clues about it.

Although we don’t know the specific details of NovaLake CPU yet, it is rumored that it will be the largest architectural upgrade in Intel’s history, even greater than the changes in the Core architecture itself. This is also the reason why Intel chose TSMC's 2nm process, because the company's foundry services lack cutting-edge processes, and in order to remain competitive in the next-generation market, the company needs to adopt more "mature" semiconductor suppliers. The target release time of the CPU is 2026.

Intel's foundry business is making steady progress, especially when the company announced a partnership with UMC, Taiwan's second-largest foundry, but for now, Intel's foundries don't appear to be gaining confidence in their upcoming processes. Although the company's "obviously" superior 18A process will go into production in the second half of 2024, choosing TSMC's 2nm process as its mainstream CPU architecture raises questions about the approach of Intel's semiconductor division, but it is still difficult to draw conclusions about the specific performance.