Intel's Tick-Tock Isn't Coming Back (theverge.com) 22
Intel's tick-tock development cadence will not return. CEO Lip-Bu Tan said during the company's Q3 2025 earnings call that the 18A process node will be a "long-lived node" powering at least three generations of client and server products. Intel reported its first profit in nearly two years, aided by financial support from Nvidia, Softbank, and the US government.
The company faces chip shortages that will peak in the first quarter of next year. CFO David Zinsner said Intel is prioritizing AI server chips over consumer processors. Intel will launch only one Panther Lake SKU this year and roll out others in 2026. Zinsner called Panther Lake "pretty expensive" and said Intel will push Lunar Lake chips "in at least the first half of the year."
The company faces chip shortages that will peak in the first quarter of next year. CFO David Zinsner said Intel is prioritizing AI server chips over consumer processors. Intel will launch only one Panther Lake SKU this year and roll out others in 2026. Zinsner called Panther Lake "pretty expensive" and said Intel will push Lunar Lake chips "in at least the first half of the year."
Snuffy Smith Facing Moonshine Shortages (Score:5, Insightful)
"The company faces chip shortages..."
I think I found the problem. See, Intel, you guys are supposed to SELL chips, not buy them.
It was an honest mistake, but it's good we caught it. I will take my consulting fee in cash, check, or credit.
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Just a joke (Score:2)
s/'s Tick-Tock//
I hope for intel's sake (Score:1)
I hope the AI bubble has room to stretch yet because this will only cost Intel more share to AMD and various ARM licensees in their other markets.
They darn well better have a plan to be ready with some compelling leap-frog-products in those other spaces 'three generations for now' because by the super premium "AI-Server market" prices driven by people spending VC money that was never real to them anyway will likely be over.
I don't think the current AI tech is a dead end by any means or that it is not valuab
Re:I hope for intel's sake (Score:4, Insightful)
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Based on what I have seen from the current CEO, long term planning is not his focus as much as short term investor gains. After all the last CEO spent a lot of time and effort trying to get back Intel on solid engineering. But those efforts close too much and did not provide immediate returns so he was fired, I expect those CPU gains to run out next year and the CEO wonders why AMD and Apple are kicking Intel's butt again when it comes to processors.
Seems like the current favorable quarterly results are due to several one-time factors, including massive cash infusions from the US government, Nvidia, and Softbank combined with higher sales due to the Windows 10 sunsetting and the sale of Altera and Mobileye. Take out the money from selling Altera and Mobileye, and the profit decreases by 75%.
The big question is how sustainable Intel's profitability is. Intel has cut a lot of employees, so their operating costs are far lower, maybe around $10 billion l
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The current CEO's focus is not going bankrupt. The last CEO spent too much and almost killed the company.
Citation needed.
Why did the US govt become the largest holder? (Score:2)
If AI stays as unreliable as it currently is, pushing AI processors over better consumer processors may be a mistake as AMD, ARM, etc. eat away Intel's former markets.
Current reading: If Anyone Builds It Everyone Will Die. [wikipedia.org]
Makes a really good case that AI developers have little idea of how training works in and the outputs that can be expected. And they are not studying this aspect as they are incentivized ($$$) to create larger AI models that they will understand even less.
This "Don't worry, be happy" attit
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> AI generated content *MUST* always be LABELED as "GENERATED BY AI" content.
That'll work about as well as spam-labelling laws.
Greed Over Sense (Score:4, Insightful)
I just sold my shares, largely because of this news. They're shifting focus away from the one market they still have a decent grasp in order to chase a market that will likely severely diminish in the next five years or so. Many companies that are working on AI algorithms will likely create their own silicon specifically for their algorithms. Tesla already does this and many more companies have stated their intentions to do the same. This is beyond foolish and is likely the result of greed over sense.
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It sounds like you never should have had intel stock in the first place. Investing in a company means understanding what they are doing. They have had a division focused on AI Server Chips as part of their Datacentre group for nearly 3 years now and have been pushing out AI specific products for that period already. Intel had divisions dedicated to special purpose industries for a long time now. It's why they purchased Altera 10 years ago.
Sidenote: Jan 2024 the head of the AI and Datacentre Group at Intel l
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Which is something they literally did by creating an AI division... Please don't trade shares on headlines. AI has been a very strong strategic focus for Intel for a while now, and one that has already influenced their consumer chips.
A dead clock doesn't tick or tock (Score:2)
Focus on what's selling... (Score:2)
How many people are actually choosing Intel for AI chips over its competitors?
Compare that to Intel's continued lead in laptops and in mass-market desktops (e.g. the Dell and HP and Lenovo machines bought in bulk by businesses). Or for that matter, their Arc GPU business where the Battlemage cards are flying off the shelves last I heard.
In other words, we can't innovate anymore.... (Score:2)