Intel Joins 1.4-nm Chip Race vs TSMC, Samsung

Intel plans to begin producing chips at the cutting-edge level of 1.4 nanometers (nm) in the coming years as it ramps up its foundry business to compete with the world's contract chipmaking king Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), Yifan Yu reported for Nikkei Asia.

Intel said it will begin 18A this year and the newly announced 14A around 2027. I Photo: Intel Corporation

"Today we are announcing Intel 14A for the first time," Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said at the company's first foundry event, Intel Foundry Direct Connect.

"You can think about this for 1.4 nm technology." The US chipmaker has lagged behind TSMC and South Korea's Samsung Electronics -- the two largest contract chip producers -- in terms of how many transistors they can squeeze onto a single chip.

TSMC and Samsung are now producing 3-nm chips, while Intel is at the 5-nm mark. All three are racing to produce 2-nm chips by 2025.

TSMC leads the foundry industry with a market share of nearly 60%, says technology market research firm Counterpoint. Samsung ranks second with a share of about 13%, followed by Taiwan's UMC at 6%.

Microsoft became Intel's foundry customer Wednesday, with the US tech giant saying it has chosen Intel's 18A process -- its 1.8-nm chipmaking technology -- to manufacture a chip design.

Intel said it will begin 18A this year and the newly announced 14A around 2027.

The company expects to "regain process leadership with Intel 18A in 2025."

However, TSMC CEO C.C. Wei said at an earnings call in October that its 2-nm technology is "more advanced" than 18A because of "an earlier time to market, better technology maturity, and much better cost."

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