Something big is going on at chip stock Intel (INTC), and it seems to be mostly happening in Arizona. Intel is working on “advanced silicon wafer tests” of product built under the 18A production node, and there are reports of other new chips in the making as well. The news proved a bit of a yawn for shareholders, though, as share prices slid modestly in Monday afternoon’s trading.
At the Chandler Ocatillo campus, Intel recently kicked off the “risk start” manufacturing milestone, which shows that the 18A production system is still gaining ground and heading toward full production. We had already heard that was the case some time back, but with this, we can tell that the gains are still coming, and hopefully, getting Intel back on track.
Intel Foundry chief technology and operations officer Naga Chandrasekaran noted, “Intel 18A is the most advanced node that’s developed and ramped here in United States and this node is industry first on several fronts.” Further, Chandrasekaran also noted, “It’s the first gate-all-around technology that will be ramped in high volume manufacturing. It’s the first node to have backside power and offerings to our customers and we are very delighted to have this node achieve the risk start manufacturing milestone.”
Chiplets and Apples
Intel also got a new die shot of the Arrow Lake series, which demonstrated more about what Intel’s “chiplet” design looks like. The compute tile sits in the upper left of the processor, while the I/O title is on the bottom. The system on a chip (SoC) tile and the graphics processing unit (GPU) tiles, meanwhile, are on the right, and a pair of “filler tiles” is also included to provide more stability to the processor itself.
Just to top it off, Intel reportedly has a new performance metric for its 14A process node: Apple (AAPL). More specifically, Apple’s M4 chip is the new standard the 14A process is out to meet or beat, reports note. And early signs suggest that Intel’s aspirations of beating Apple chips is not out of line; the 14A process node is said to operate at 1.4 nanometers, which is staggering, given that current chips are running between three and five nanometers.
Is Intel a Buy, Hold or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on INTC stock based on one Buy, 26 Holds and four Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 33.72% loss in its share price over the past year, the average INTC price target of $21.29 per share implies 4.67% upside potential.
