As we speak on the corporate’s Q3 2025 earnings name, the place Intel noticed its first revenue in practically two years due primarily to these lifelines, CEO Lip-Bu Tan and CFO David Zinsner defined how the corporate doesn’t but have sufficient chips. It’s at present seeing shortages that it expects to peak within the first quarter of subsequent yr — within the meantime, leaders say they’re going to prioritize AI server chips over some shopper processors because it offers with provide and demand.
“We count on CCG [Intel’s consumer chips] to be down modestly and DCAI [Intel’s server chips] to be up strongly as we prioritize capability for server shipments over entry degree shopper elements,” Intel says. Tan revealed at the moment that Intel may also launch new AI GPUs each yr, following Nvidia and AMD in shaking up their conventional cadence to deal with the large demand for AI servers. It’s not clear what which may imply for these hoping for extra Intel gaming GPUs.
Whereas all eyes are on Intel’s sizzling new Panther Lake and its 18A course of to point out the world it could possibly nonetheless take advantage of potent shopper PC chips and make them in-house, the corporate reiterated it’s solely launching one SKU of Panther Lake this yr and slowly rolling out others in 2026. Right here’s one other potential cause why: Zinsner hinted at the moment that Panther Lake shall be a “fairly costly” product to begin with, and Intel’s going to should push its present Lunar Lake chips as an alternative “in at the very least the primary half of the yr.”
Whereas Intel has repeatedly pushed again towards the concept its 18A course of had poor yields, the corporate admitted to traders and analysts at the moment that it’s not able to be an enormous monetary success both: yields are “sufficient to deal with the provision however not the place we want them to be to drive the suitable degree of margins,” says Zinsner, suggesting that it is likely to be 2026, and even 2027 for an “acceptable degree of yields” in that regard.
For now, Intel shall be “working carefully with prospects to maximise our accessible output, together with adjusting pricing and blend, to shift demand in the direction of merchandise the place we have now provide they usually have demand” — which feels like enjoying with the costs it costs PC makers to stay Intel inside their computer systems and pointing them at Lunar Lake elements as an alternative of sizzling new ones. Tan reiterated at the moment that he’s not going to put money into extra capability until there’s “dedicated exterior demand,” and Zinsner says investments in capability subsequent yr received’t “considerably change expectations”.
Intel says that 18A shall be a “long-lived node” that can energy “at the very least the following three generations of shopper and server merchandise.” In the event you have been hoping for a return to the “tick-tock” days the place Intel would alternate between shrinking its chips and releasing new architectures each technology, that’s not occurring right here.
However that doesn’t imply Intel will cancel its subsequent node, Intel 14A, because it warned it would. Tan recommended at the moment that prospects have stepped in to save lots of 14A, and Intel, that the corporate is “delighted and extra assured” in it, and Zinsner says it’s not solely “off to a great begin,” however higher than 18A was at this level “by way of efficiency and yields.”