Intel’s affairs have been symbolic of adversity lately, and well-known industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo «has thrown up» two more — Panther Lake 18A production and order difficulties.
Intel is facing a major hurdle that could hamper production plans for Panther Lake processors in the second half of 2025. According to Ming-Chi Kuo’s data obtained by «survey» in the industry, the yield of usable chips on the 18A process (18 angstroms, 1.8 nm) does not exceed 20-30%. Wccftech notes that this makes mass production almost impossible at this stage.
According to the website, Intel Panther Lake is now are being tested by partners PC production, and impressions from the supply chain are not very optimistic. Intel is supposed to improve its output by 10% in the near future, but this is not much, and production plans may be adjusted.
The first Panther Lake engineering samples, made with Intel/IFS’s 18A, are currently being tested by major PC ODM/EMS makers. My early 2025 industry survey showed 18A yields below 20-30%, so there’s still a lot of room to step up—which doesn’t bode well for Intel’s goal of…
— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) February 24, 2025
Another problem that Ming-Chi Kuo — touches upon is third-party orders. According to him, Intel «faces a big obstacle in obtaining external orders due to its organizational structure, supply chain management, and production culture». The analyst cites TSMC as a good example. Recently, its founder Morris Chung paraphrased Tim Cook’s words about Intel, said more than 10 years ago: «Intel just doesn’t know how to be a factory». It seems that time is passing, and problems are being solved very slowly.
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