While Intel's fab business is the elephant in the room, the company is showing some progress on other fronts.
Jul. 25, 2025 –
On the eve of Intel’s second-quarter 2025 earnings report on July 24th, hardly anybody expected a turnaround story. What industry watchers were keenly waiting for was a sense of direction on the chipmaker’s struggling contract manufacturing business.
Intel’s restructuring plan was also in the spotlight as the Santa Clara, California-based company aims to create a faster-moving, flatter, and more agile organization.
The earnings call came with plenty of news. However, as widely expected, Intel’s nascent fab business and its costly 18A process node stole much of the limelight.
Former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger poured billions of dollars into the foundry business to compete with TSMC, with the 18A process node at the forefront of this highly ambitious initiative.
A Reuters story preceding the earnings call raised questions about the future of 18A manufacturing technology and quoted analysts seeing a potential write-down. It also pointed to the new Intel CEO’s focus on the 14A process node.
Lip-Bu Tan told analysts that Intel engineers are currently busy developing the next-generation 14A process node, and this development is carried out in close collaboration with external customers. This tight collaboration with external customers has been lacking in the case of the 18A process node, which is set to enter high-volume production in late 2025.