At the RBC Capital Markets Global TMT Conference, John Pitzer, Intel's vice president of corporate planning and investor relations, announced that the yield rate of "Panther Lake" chips on Intel's 18A process node has increased by approximately 7% per month for several consecutive months, in line with the industry's healthy yield rate improvement rate. Reports of low 18A node yields over the past few months have been concerning, but the situation has improved significantly, meaning "Panther Lake" chips are expected to be delivered on time.
The yield curve has continued to rise over the past seven or eight months. If the 7% monthly growth is maintained, Intel is expected to advance mass production of "Panther Lake" at a reasonable unit cost. However, the speed at which customers can pick up goods will also depend on the actual ramp-up rate and capacity decisions.
John Pitzer said at the meeting: "Of course we hope that the gross profit margin can perform better. After Lip-Bu joined in March this year, we were dissatisfied with the previous slow and unstable yield progress. The biggest change in the past seven or eight months is that we can now predict the path of yield improvement. We have mentioned before that the yield rate in the industry's new node ramp-up stage increases by about 7% per month on average.'Panther Lake’ is currently on this track, which gives us confidence when it comes to product launches this quarter. You can pay attention to CES in January next year, and we will have more relevant information.”
In addition, Pitzer also mentioned the development progress of the 14A node. He revealed that the health of the 14A node is better than that of the 18A node at the same stage. They received feedback from external customers in 14A faster and with higher quality, and the relevant design tools are more mature. Pitzer added that 14A uses second-generation gate-all-around technology and second-generation backside power supply technology, and is currently significantly ahead of the same period of 18A in terms of performance and yield. Intel is "very confident" in the status of the 14A node.