The offensive of ARM chips on PC is a concrete threat for the historical players in the x86 architecture on PC, especially Intel. But according to its president, Pat Geslinger, Intel wants to become the preferred foundry for these chips ahead of TSMC.
Pat Geslinger’s releases are always quite tasty. The CEO of Intel has given us since 2021 some memorable quotes in recent months, like when he considered Nvidia “ lucky» of having won the battle of AI or even that he qualified “insignificant» the emergence of ARM architecture on PC.
It was during Computex that Intel presented its next mobile architecture, Lunar Lake, which could finally correct the situation after the sluggish revolution that was Meteor Lake. Geslinger, well aware of the groundswell that the arrival of Snapdragon X chips represents, is still not worried now that Qualcomm’s plans have been outlined for the PC market.
Intel wants to become the founder of ARM chips
Intel aims to very clearly separate its foundry business, in order to produce chips for various customers, including its competitors Nvidia, AMD and even Google. But this is a long-term process, especially given the significant, and frankly irrecoverable, delay faced by the giant TSMC.
Pat Geslinger remains confident in the x86 architecture, which remains largely dominant, even if ARM aims to conquer 50% of the PC market in the next five years. In this context, the CEO of Intel would be more than happy to produce his chips in his own foundries, according to his statements at Computex 2024 relayed by the PCGamer site.
This follows a partnership signed between the two firms in April 2023 and reinforced last March, which aims to facilitate the production of ARM SoCs on Intel’s 18A process. Thus, if Intel sees its market share decline over the coming years, its foundry activity could help offset the losses by actively participating in the emergence of players who may cause its downfall.
A future all mapped out, or almost
During the question-and-answer session which followed the presentation of Lunar Lake at Computex, Pat Geslinger recalled his priority: his famous 18A process which will be at the heart of the Panther Lake architecture planned for 2026.
As recalledPCGamer, the manufacturer’s foundry is far from being mature, when we know that the Lunar Lake chips just announced are still produced by TSMC. The transition will be long, but we can bet that if Lunar Lake manages to convince of the resilience of Intel (and x86) in the face of the arrival of its biggest competitor since AMD, then the firm would have much more than one solution to the problem. end of his hegemony.
