As well as scrapping its contender for the AI datacentre accelerator market, Falcon Shores, Intel has slowed its roadmap for introducing 18A.
The lead 18A product Clearwater Forest has been 
delayed one year to H126 according to co-CEO Michelle Holthaus. Other processors due for 18A have also been delayed.
On the Falcon Shores decision, the verdict from top chip analyst Stacy Rasgon is that Intel’s AI accelerator story “looks dead.”
Far from talking about pushing more Intel products into its own fabs and so increase margins, Intel is now talking about putting more products out to foundry which will further reduce margins.
“Intel Products’ gross margins are going to be under pressure this year,” says co-CEO David Zinsner, “some of the parts have a higher cost. In particular, Lunar Lake has a higher cost because it’s got the memory and package and so on. We’re basically buying that memory and turning around and selling it at the same price. That’s actually bringing the margin down. The price is going to be under pressure pretty much throughout this year.”
Intel’s 2025 capex is budgeted at $20 billion with $7.8 billion coming from the government while TSMC’s 2025 capex budget is $38 billion – and Intel is the one supposed to be in catch-up mode!
