Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger explains his company’s ambitious race to catch up in graphics chips and manufacturing technology.
Intel invests billions in new chip fabs, manufacturing processes and products, but has endured a losing quarter, expects sales to decline and is plagued by delays in graphics cards and server processors. In an interview with journalists from Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Intel boss Pat Gelsinger explained how this fits together.
Despite the current difficulties, Gelsinger is positive about the future. All long-term forecasts therefore assume a sharp increase in demand for chips with the most modern manufacturing processes.
At the same time, with Intel, TSMC and Samsung Electronics, there are only three companies in the world that offer this technology. And Intel will be able to produce “the best transistors” in a few years. Therefore he is certain that chip developers such as Qualcomm, Nvidia and Apple will book Intel’s production capacities.
Gelsinger also confirmed the extraordinarily ambitious plan to bring five new manufacturing processes to series maturity over the course of four years. After Intel 10 and Intel 7, Intel 4 is planned for the Core i-13000 “Meteor Lake” from 2023, followed by Intel 3 for the Xeon-SP “Granite Rapids”. Then Intel 20A and Intel 18A should follow.
According to Gelsinger, three teams are working in parallel on the related technology nodes Intel 10/7, Intel 4/3 and Intel 20A/18A.
At the end of 2025, Intel wants to overtake TSMC N2 with 18A and high-NA EUV lithography at the latest.
Be patient with graphics chips
Graphics cards with the new Intel “Arc” graphics chips from the Alchemist generation, such as the A770 and A380, will be released on October 12 with a delay of several months. The reason for the delay is that the development of powerful drivers was misjudged. In any case, it is clear that you cannot turn the market upside down with the first product generation. In the course of three generations – the Alchemist successors Battlemage (Arc B…), Celestial (C…) and Druid (D…) have already been announced – Intel wants to come on par with AMD and Nvidia.
Gelsinger was particularly combative when it came to PC processors. Meteor Lake is already further ahead than planned.
Investments in Europe and Germany
Asked about the influence of the war in Ukraine and the energy crisis on the fab plans in Magdeburg, Gelsinger emphasized that security of supply is an absolute priority for chip fabs. However, compared to other costs, the electricity price is not the most important factor. It is currently in the final negotiations with the German and European partners. He also mentioned the “press reports about the Fab in Italy”, which is possibly being built south of Verona.
