Intel Begins 18A-P Risk Production in Bid to Challenge TSMC

Years of advanced-process delays have left Intel trailing TSMC in the foundry market. Its 18A-P process is crucial to re-entering the advanced-node race and securing external customers such as Apple. The U.S. government acquired a 10% stake in Intel in August 2025, while NVIDIA invested $5 billion the following month, reflecting policy and industry bets on strengthening the domestic U.S. semiconductor supply chain.

Intel announced at the VLSI Symposium on June 16, 2026, that 18A-P had entered risk production, meaning the process was available for customer validation but had not yet reached high-volume manufacturing. Compared with 18A, it delivers 9% higher performance at the same power or uses 18% less power at the same performance, while improving thermal resistance by 40%. The market is watching whether Intel can secure Apple chip orders in 2027.