Oct. 20, 2025 –
Intel has secured a significant order from Microsoft, putting trust from external customers into Intel Foundry. According to Charlie Demerjian from SemiAccurate—and shared by X user @Jukanlosreve—Microsoft will manufacture its Maia 3 chip codenamed "Griffin" at Intel Foundry using the 18A or 18A-P process. This 18A-P node improves upon Intel's 18A by incorporating the RibbonFET and PowerVia technologies, offering enhanced performance and energy efficiency. Compare to the regular 18A node, improvements include newly designed low-threshold voltage components, optimized elements to reduce leakage, and refined ribbon width specifications, all aimed at boosting performance-per-watt metrics. This is particularly important for AI accelerators used in data centers, which require high efficiency due to the large number of units involved.