Intel is quietly staging a comeback
For a while it has felt like Intel was on the back foot. AMD has been winning mindshare with Ryzen and EPYC, Nvidia dominates GPUs, and TSMC has been the go to foundry for cutting edge chips. But new reports suggest Intel might be lining up some very powerful allies for its manufacturing business and that could reshape the future of PC hardware and gaming.
A report from GF Securities HK claims that Intel’s advanced manufacturing and packaging technologies are attracting serious interest from big names including Apple, Broadcom and Google. Even more eye catching is the suggestion that AMD and Nvidia are considering Intel’s future 14A node for their server products.
If this pans out, it could mean that the CPUs and GPUs powering your next gaming PC or cloud gaming service might actually be manufactured by Intel even if they carry AMD or Nvidia logos.
What are Intel 18A, 14A and EMIB and why do they matter?
To understand why this is important for gamers and PC enthusiasts, it helps to know what Intel is offering.
18A and 14A process nodes: These are Intel’s upcoming cutting edge manufacturing processes. Think of a process node as the factory tech that decides how small and efficient transistors can be. Smaller and better usually means higher performance, lower power draw, or both. Intel 18A is close on the horizon and will be used for Intel’s own Panther Lake and likely Nova Lake CPUs. 14A is further out and aims to compete with or leapfrog the best that TSMC and Samsung will have.
EMIB packaging: EMIB stands for Embedded Multi die Interconnect Bridge. It is Intel’s high end packaging tech that lets different chiplets or dies be connected inside a single package with very fast communication between them. For gamers this kind of tech is behind things like multi chip GPUs or CPUs with many complex components stitched together efficiently.
According to the GF Securities report, Apple is expected to use Intel’s 18A and packaging tech for a future smartphone SoC and another custom ASIC. Google is rumored to be eyeing the 18A process for a future Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) used in data centers and AI workloads.
For now that sounds very phone and cloud focused, but the same underlying tech will also be used for PC and server processors. As these advanced nodes become mature and volume ramps up, PC gaming can benefit from faster CPUs, more efficient platforms, and potentially more competition in price.
Could AMD and Nvidia GPUs be made by Intel?
The spiciest part of the report is the suggestion that AMD and Nvidia are considering Intel’s 14A node for future server SKUs. The wording from GF Securities is cautious “we continue to expect the likely engagement” so nothing is confirmed. However, even serious discussion is a big deal.
Right now most high end CPUs and GPUs are built by TSMC. That includes AMD Ryzen, Radeon, EPYC, Nvidia GeForce gaming GPUs and data center accelerators. Samsung plays a smaller role in the top tier market. This concentration has some major downsides:
Supply constraints: When everyone fights for capacity at one foundry, shortages happen. Gamers know this pain from GPU shortages and insane prices.
Pricing power: If only one company can build the most advanced chips at scale, it holds a lot of leverage over cost and scheduling.
Risk and fragility: Any disruption at that one major foundry hits the entire industry, from consoles and PCs to cloud hardware.
If Intel can offer a competitive 14A node and solid yields, AMD and Nvidia suddenly have another realistic place to manufacture some of their most advanced products. Even if they only move server chips and AI accelerators at first, that still eases the load at TSMC and can indirectly improve availability for gaming GPUs.
GF Securities notes that Intel’s Panther Lake yields on 18A were already around 60 to 65 percent by November, with a target of 70 percent by the end of 2025. For a brand new process, those are promising numbers and suggest that Intel’s foundry plans are not just marketing talk.
What this could mean for gamers and PC enthusiasts
While a lot of this story is about contracts, nodes and packaging, the impact will eventually be felt by anyone who builds or buys gaming rigs.
More competition at the high end: If Intel successfully attracts Apple, Google, Broadcom and potentially AMD and Nvidia, its foundry business becomes a serious rival to TSMC. Stronger competition at the manufacturing level can drive faster innovation and better value for CPU and GPU buyers.
Better availability of GPUs and CPUs: Extra cutting edge capacity means less chance that one console launch or AI boom wipes out GPU supply for PC gamers. Cloud gaming services, AI workloads and gaming GPUs would not all be fighting for the same exact capacity at one foundry.
More advanced chip designs: Technologies like EMIB and small nodes like 18A and 14A enable more complex multi die designs. That can translate into CPUs with more cores, GPUs with more compute units, or hybrid chips that combine CPU, GPU and AI accelerators in new ways.
Potentially wider use of Intel tech across the stack: It is not hard to imagine a future where your gaming PC runs an AMD CPU and Nvidia GPU, but both are fabricated or packaged by Intel. The old Intel inside sticker might end up indirectly applying to a lot more hardware than just Intel branded processors.
There are still big caveats. Intel’s 14A node is years away from production, and none of these rumored deals are publicly confirmed. Intel’s foundry division has also been losing large sums of money and turning that around will not happen overnight even with big names on the customer list.
Still, if even a portion of the reports are accurate, the landscape for PC hardware and gaming in the second half of the decade could look very different. Instead of a world dominated by TSMC manufacturing and a handful of chip designers, we may see a more balanced ecosystem where Intel plays a critical behind the scenes role in getting the fastest CPUs and GPUs into your next build.
For gamers watching the long term, that is good news. More competition, more capacity and more advanced chip technologies usually lead to better performance and more choices when it is time to upgrade your rig.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/securities-firm-research-suggests-that-intel-is-on-track-to-garner-chip-manufacturing-and-packaging-orders-from-apple-broadcom-google-and-maybe-even-nvidia/
