Intel’s tick-tock isn’t coming again, and every little thing else I simply realized

[ad_1] At this time on the corporate’s Q3 2025 earnings name, the place Intel noticed its first revenue in almost two years due primarily to these lifelines, CEO Lip-Bu Tan and CFO David Zinsner defined how the corporate doesn’t but have the chips. It’s at the moment 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 client processors because it offers with provide and demand.

“We anticipate CCG to be down modestly and DCAI to be up strongly as we prioritize capability for server shipments over entry stage shopper elements,” Intel says. Tan revealed at this time that Intel will even launch new AI GPUs each yr, following Nvidia and AMD in shaking up their conventional cadence to handle the massive demand for AI servers. It’s not clear what that 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 might nonetheless take advantage of potent client PC chips and make them in-house, the corporate reiterated it’s solely launching one SKU this yr and slowly rolling out others in 2026. Right here’s one other attainable purpose why: Zinsner hinted at this time that Panther Lake can be a “fairly costly” product to begin with, and Intel’s going to should push its current Lunar Lake chips as a substitute “in not less than the primary half of the yr.”

Whereas Intel has repeatedly pushed again in opposition to the concept its 18A course of had poor yields, the corporate admitted to traders and analysts at this time that it’s not able to be an enormous monetary success both: yields “ample to handle the availability however not the place we'd like them to be to drive the suitable stage of margins,” says Zinsner, suggesting that it is perhaps 2026, and even 2027 for an “acceptable stage of yields” there.

For now, Intel can be “working carefully with prospects to maximise our out there output, together with adjusting pricing and blend, to shift demand in direction of merchandise the place we have now provide they usually have demand” — which seems like taking part in with the costs it expenses PC makers to stay Intel inside their computer systems and pointing them at Lunar Lake elements as a substitute of sizzling new ones. Tan reiterated at this time that he’s not going to spend money on extra capability until there’s “dedicated exterior demand,” and Zinsner says investments in capability subsequent yr gained’t “considerably change expectations”.

Intel says that 18A can be a “long-lived node” that may energy “not less than the subsequent three generations of shopper and server merchandise.” If you happen to 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 taking place right here.

However that doesn’t imply Intel will cancel its subsequent node, Intel 14A, because it warned it'd. Tan recommended at this time 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 an excellent begin,” however higher than 18A was at this level “when it comes to efficiency and yields.”