Intel's contract manufacturing business faces uncertain outlook

Intel's contract foundry business is an important part of the U.S. chipmaker's turnaround. But that was the plan of former CEO Pat Gelsinger, who said in 2021 that Intel would seize process leadership from TSMC and Samsung foundries in 2025 with the Intel 18A (1.8nm) node. But Gelsinger resigned on December 1, 2024, and although the company still expects to produce 1.8nm chips next year, Intel is now in chaos as the next CEO has not yet been named. So far, Amazon AWS is the only well-known company that has signed on to Intel's A18 process node.