Intel held its first big foundry event for media and analysts last week, and the headline was adding Intel 14A to its foundry roadmap. That's essentially the company's 1.4nm process, though it didn't announce when it would arrive. Now that the show is over, it's modifying that announcement by giving it a launch date in 2026 and adding one more node just beyond it by stating that 1nm, or Intel 10A, will come right after in 2027.
Intel gave a briefing to the media about Intel 10A at the show, but due to some confusion about when the embargo over the news would lift, it hasn't come to light until now. Tom's Hardware has posted about the presentation, which shows Intel will continue to pursue a very aggressive node progression strategy even after its "five nodes in four years" campaign theoretically ends in 2025 when Intel 18A arrives. Assuming 1.8nm launches next year, the company will follow it up with 1.4nm in 2026, then leap to 1nm in 2027. If this transpires, the company will likely be ahead of its rival TSMC, which is expected to be on 2nm by 2025 or 2026, with 1.4nm following after that.
When speaking to the press, Intel didn't divulge any information about its upcoming 14A process, which is also true for its 10A node. However, Tom's says an Intel source stated the company doesn't consider a process to be a "new node" unless it offers around 15% improvement in efficiency and performance over its predecessor, so we can estimate from that. Intel also previously announced new "process evolutions" for its upcoming nodes, whereby it would add performance, features, or 3D stacking to an existing node. Intel's 14A will also get a "feature extension" in 2027, according to Intel's roadmap, so it seems 10A will arrive in between 14A and 14A-E.
Intel also reiterated that it will be going all-in on AI across every stage of the chip production process in the future. In addition to using AI for design and forecasting duties, it also envisions actual robots assisting humans in the manufacturing process, which Intel calls "Cobots." A hyper-automated foundry full of AI is something Intel considers a "10X moonshot," and it's so ambitious the company didn't provide a timeline or any further details. However, with factories spanning the globe, that will take at least a decade to be implemented (assuming the cobots don't go on strike and slow things down).
