Intel's 14A chip has surpassed the performance of 18A nearly a year before its release, and potential customers are participating in the development

Intel's chief financial officer (CFO) revealed that the 14A process is very optimistic and will become Intel's chip product for larger-scale external customers. The 14A process has been sampled by potential customers at each milestone node, showing the huge market interest in this chip.

For those who are new to the news, Intel recently demonstrated the 18A process node, which has received optimistic reviews from the industry due to its excellent PPA (performance, power, area) performance and application in products such as Panther Lake. But for Intel's foundry business, 14A is the key product that determines the future of the company's chip manufacturing. According to comments from CFO David Zinsner, 14A has made excellent progress in performance and yield, even surpassing the performance of the 18A node in the same period.

The CFO said: "As far as 14A is concerned, we are off to a very good start. If you compare the current maturity of 14A to the same period of 18A, both performance and yield are superior, so it is a better start. We just need to continue this progress."

According to it, 14A has reached performance and yield levels comparable to 18A almost one year ahead of the official risk mass production schedule, which is a major benefit to Intel's process iteration. It is foreseeable that whether 14A can help Intel occupy a leading position in the domestic chip market in the United States depends on customer adoption. Unlike 18A, which mainly targets the company's internal products, 14A will directly target external customers to promote customer participation.

Currently, the 14A process invites potential customers to participate in sampling and feedback at every major development stage in order to optimize the final product based on customer opinions. This will also help to obtain more foundry orders in the future. Intel plans to put 14A into mass production by the end of 2026, so it will take nearly a year to see whether it can meet expectations.

In terms of technology, 14A is expected to use high numerical aperture (High-NA) lithography equipment and a new generation of RibbonFET 2 transistors, so it will be significantly improved compared to the 18A node. For Intel, the successful production of 14A plays an important role in its position as an foundry service provider in the industry.