Intel Reportedly Places 2nm Orders For Nova Lake At TSMC; Foundry Division Likely To Be Left Out For Now

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Intel has reportedly placed 2nm orders at TSMC for their Nova Lake CPUs, as Team Blue plans out a massive comeback in the desktop processor segment.

Intel Plans To Stick With Its "Dual-Sourcing" Approach With TSMC For Future Desktop CPUs, Signaling A Strategic Shift​

Well, it seems like Team Blue won't hold back when it comes to the process node it utilizes for future CPUs, as it looks like, under the new leadership, Intel has made it a priority to ensure that it delivers the best to its consumers. According to a report by Taiwan Economic Daily, it is revealed that Intel has outsourced Nova Lake's compute tile to TSMC, where it will leverage the foundry's 2nm process. Apparently, Intel plans to go all-out with the Taiwanese giant, which raises doubts about the fate of Intel's 18A process node, which is "advertised" to be better than TSMC N2.

When it comes to using TSMC for semiconductor needs, Intel's Products CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus made it clear that the firm won't hesitate to opt out of Intel Foundry, stating that Team Blue needs to meet consumer expectations. So, the possibility of acquiring cutting-edge nodes from TSMC was always there, but the one thing that makes this development a bit confusing is the way Team Blue would use IFS for its product lineup, given that Intel would certainly not rely on it for its flagship offerings, so a dual-source approach will likely be adopted.


TSMC's 2nm process has received much attention from industry giants, given that Apple, AMD, and now Intel are in the race to acquire the node. AMD recently announced that they were the first customer of 2nm, integrating the semiconductor for its 6th-generation EPYC "Venice" processors. Similarly, Apple plans to adopt the process for its A20 chip intended for the iPhone 18 series, and now, Intel will also use it for Nova Lake, so it is safe to say that attention is there, but it is important to note that 2nm integration will turn out to be much more costlier compared to previous-gen processes, especially with the supply chain uncertainty.

As far as Intel Foundry is concerned, well, we are going to see 18A with Panther Lake SoCs and Clearwater Forest Xeon, which means that Intel doesn't plan on leaving its in-house processes alone. However, the prospect would likely be decided by how PTL-S and other products play out, but for now, it is safe to say that the company would stick with a dual-sourcing approach.

Intel Reportedly Places 2nm Orders For Nova Lake At TSMC; Foundry Division Likely To Be Left Out For Now

Intel has placed 2nm orders at TSMC for their Nova Lake CPUs, as Team Blue plans out a massive comeback in the desktop processor segment.

wccftech.com

 

[fansink]

I thought Lip-Bu Tan was going to bring transparency back (as though it was ever there), because being transparent would mean coming clean about the health of 18A.

With Nova Lake ~18 months away, if 18A is doing well NOW (as we're being led to believe), surely it will be ROCKING in 18 months. Sounds as transparent as a black hole.

 

[MKWVentures]

I thought Lip-Bu Tan was going to bring transparency back (as though it was ever there), because being transparent would mean coming clean about the health of 18A.

With Nova Lake ~18 months away, if 18A is doing well NOW (as we're being led to believe), surely it will be ROCKING in 18 months. Sounds as transparent as a black hole.

Lets see what they say. 18A could be completely healthy and high performance and TSMC could still be the best business decision for some products. A mix is a good idea until the financials make the long term decision obvious. Arrow lake was N3 then it was 20A then it was N3..... based on financials.

 

[fansink]

Lets see what they say. 18A could be completely healthy and high performance and TSMC could still be the best business decision for some products. A mix is a good idea until the financials make the long term decision obvious. Arrow lake was N3 then it was 20A then it was N3..... based on financials.

That's the crock of shite, "we'll use TSMC because it's the best business decision".

The "best business decision" is CODE for "because what we have internally is crap".

Why don't you give us a logical reason for, if 18A is doing well NOW (as we're being led to believe), surely it will be ROCKING in 18 months.

 

[siliconbruh999]

Well apparently from the leaks the 8+16(This is the least volume product but a flagship product) Die is N2 and 4+8+4/4+0 die is 18AP(This is most volume product and mainstream) for Nova Lake also there is unified HUB/SOC that is shared between desktop and Mobile this time.

 

[fansink]

Well apparently from the leaks the 8+16(This is the least volume product but a flagship product) Die is N2 and 4+8+4/4+0 die is 18AP(This is most volume product and mainstream) for Nova Lake also there is unified HUB/SOC that is shared between desktop and Mobile this time.

We all know that the ~leak is not from TSMC, ~it’s Intel’s form of Transparency.

It’s as Clear as Water, Panther Lake is for mobile platforms; it can use less than optimum 18A.

Clearwater Forest is server-focused for data centers; it cannot be on a less than optimum 18A.

Intel has <9 months to get 18A “running on all cylinders” for Clearwater Forest.

If intel had faith in 18A for Clearwater Forest (for servers), why would they hedge their bet by having Nova Lake (for desktops) produced by TSMC’s 2nm.

Because Intel has insufficient Faith in 18A, currently.

So instead of Transparency, we get ~leaks about Nova Lake being on 2nm, and very shortly, we will be getting Transparent ~leaks about Clearwater Forest being on 2nm as well.

 

[siliconbruh999]

We all know that the ~leak is not from TSMC, ~it’s Intel’s form of Transparency.

It’s as Clear as Water, Panther Lake is for mobile platforms; it can use less than optimum 18A.

Clearwater Forest is server-focused for data centers; it cannot be on a less than optimum 18A.

Intel has <9 months to get 18A “running on all cylinders” for Clearwater Forest.

First Clearwater Forest was delayed due to packing it uses Hybrid bonding it can very well be the issue.

If intel had faith in 18A for Clearwater Forest (for servers), why would they hedge their bet by having Nova Lake (for desktops) produced by TSMC’s 2nm.

Because Intel has insufficient Faith in 18A, currently.

So instead of Transparency, we get ~leaks about Nova Lake being on 2nm, and very shortly, we will be getting Transparent ~leaks about Clearwater Forest being on 2nm as well.

This is impossible otherwise Clearwater forest will be launching end of 2026 or start of 27 not Q1 26 as for Nova Lake on TSMC N2 this was hinted by pat Gelsinger in Q3 24 earnings call so not really a suprise.

 

[hist78]

We all know that the ~leak is not from TSMC, ~it’s Intel’s form of Transparency.

It’s as Clear as Water, Panther Lake is for mobile platforms; it can use less than optimum 18A.

Clearwater Forest is server-focused for data centers; it cannot be on a less than optimum 18A.

Intel has <9 months to get 18A “running on all cylinders” for Clearwater Forest.

If intel had faith in 18A for Clearwater Forest (for servers), why would they hedge their bet by having Nova Lake (for desktops) produced by TSMC’s 2nm.

Because Intel has insufficient Faith in 18A, currently.

So instead of Transparency, we get ~leaks about Nova Lake being on 2nm, and very shortly, we will be getting Transparent ~leaks about Clearwater Forest being on 2nm as well.

In early March, Intel clarified this multi foundries strategy at a Morgan Stanley conference:

"Q - Joe Moore (Semiconductor Industry Analyst at Morgan Stanley)

So, you went through a CEO transition, lots of transformational stories coming out every day. But it seems like from the way you're talking about on the earnings call and the meetings you've been doing, strategy is still basically the same. And so maybe give us some perspective on what's happening at Intel now from more of a strategic perspective? It seems like you're still aiming towards the same general goals that you had under, Pat?

John Pitzer (Corporate Vice President, Investor Relations at Intel Corporation)

Yes. I mean, it's a good question. I think the core of the strategy continues to be standing up a world-class fabless company and a world-class foundry. I think on the margin, as you think about Dave and Michelle in the interim CEO roles, they have been given full agency to go off and prosecute the strategy, I think on the margin. I think from an Intel products perspective, I think there's a strong understanding that without that being healthy first. It's really hard to have a healthy Intel foundry.

So, I do think Michelle has been given a bit more agency to go off and make decisions around what she thinks is best for the product road map and for longer-term market share there. And I think the biggest sort of manifestation of that today is she probably has more agency to use TSMC longer and for more than she might have had six or nine months ago. And to be clear, we have roughly 30% of our wafers outsourced today. That is probably a high watermark for us.

But to the extent that I think a year ago, we were talking about trying to get that to zero as quickly as possible. That's no longer the strategy. We think it's always good to have at least some of our wafers with TSMC. They're a great supplier. It creates a good competition between them and Intel Foundry. Not quite sure what the right sort of level set is. Is it 20? Is it 15? We're working through that. But we will use, I think, external foundry suppliers longer kind of under this new strategy."

Source:

It's official: Intel will continue outsourcing up to 30% of its wafer production to TSMC

"Q - Joe Moore (Semiconductor Industry Analyst at Morgan Stanley) So, you went through a CEO transition, lots of transformational stories coming out every day. But it seems like from the way you're talking about on the earnings call and the meetings you've been doing, strategy is still...

semiwiki.com

 

[dkr1986]

First Clearwater Forest was delayed due to packing it uses Hybrid bonding it can very well be the issue.

This is impossible otherwise Clearwater forest will be launching end of 2026 or start of 27 not Q1 26 as for Nova Lake on TSMC N2 this was hinted by pat Gelsinger in Q3 24 earnings call so not really a suprise.

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I was about to post it, but you beat me to it. Michelle (CEO of Products) said they have the flexibility to choose foundry partner based on PPA, time to market window & cost targets, who knows what led them to choose N2 .

Could be just iGPU tiles for NVL-H laptops too (less likely). So far, people here have said 18A performance is somewhere between N3P and N2, with AMD choosing N2, may be Intel needed that extra juice to stay competitive.