Panther Lake and 18A 'create a firm foundation on which to build the new Intel'

Intel has had a rocky few years, but it believes 18A, its latest manufacturing process, and Panther Lake, its new chip generation, are so special that it will make an entirely new Intel.

That's all according to Intel's Q4 earnings call, where CFO David Zinsner said, "2025 demonstrated the staying power of the x86 ecosystem across client and datacenter, and the importance of our manufacturing assets as we launched Core Ultra Series 3 on Intel 18A, the most advanced process fully developed and manufactured in the United States. Both create a firm foundation on which to build the new Intel" (transcript via Seeking Alpha).

On 18A, CEO Lip-Bu Tan said, "While we still have work to do, I'm encouraged by the steady progress on our Intel 18A use, and Naga [executive Vice President and Foundry lead] and his team remain laser-focused on additional improvements as they ramp Series 3 into the high volume needed to meet strong customer demand."

Intel is split into a few major segments: the part that designs chips that go into desktops/laptops/handhelds; and Intel Foundry, its semiconductor manufacturing division, which also offers to make chips for other companies these days.

Early signs are good for Panther Lake. We managed to get our hands on it at CES 2026 and Cyberpunk 2077, on High settings at 1200p without upscaling or ray tracing, managed to get an average fps of 53. With XeSS set to quality, that reached up to an average fps of 74. This is super solid for a mobile chip without a dedicated GPU, and even better if its 20-30 hour battery life claims prove accurate.

18A has been at the forefront of conversations around Intel for a few years now. In 2024, now ex-CEO Pat Gelsinger said, "I've bet the whole company on 18A". Intel is in a good position to cash in on manufacturing process gains, though. Foundry's biggest competition is TSMC. With the insecurity that comes from American tariffs, TSMC has put a lot of money into US fabs, but it's legally restricted from producing the latest node process in the US. This means that if Intel can match TSMC's latest and greatest in Taiwan, it can outpace TSMC America's offerings.

Intel is not, however, all in on 14A just yet, as "It does not make sense to build out significant capacity there until we know that we have the customers that will accept that demand." This is despite Intel reportedly pushing what customers it does have onto 14A just last year.

Intel could be set for a big year ahead of it, with Panther Lake and 18A finally coming out. Nova Lake, the upcoming Series 4 desktop and mobile processor range, is still on track for a launch in late 2026, though it's still not clear how much supply will be gobbled up by datacenters.

Naturally, gamers only make up a portion of Intel's business. The ever-present demands of AI represent a big opportunity for Intel. Tan closes the earnings call saying, "I remain focused on disciplined execution and deep collaboration with our customers to seize the meaningful opportunity created by [the] AI era."

Here's hoping that, if AI has to take up resources, the AI revenue gets put back into the product.

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