Samsung is pushing back the 1.4 nm etching process, and Intel will not be offering 18A to its partners.
Two pieces of excellent news in quick succession for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. Better known by its acronym TSMC, the world's number one foundry is currently working on bringing its N2 or 2 nm etching process into production. The group's Taiwanese factories are ramping up production of this critical process, which brands such as AMD, Appl and NVIDIA have already reserved for their next chips. TSMC is alone in this niche, while its main competitors - Intel and Samsung - have been trying to get back on track, but the two excellent pieces of news mentioned above concern production by the American and the South Korean.
On the one hand, we have Intel, which was due to complete the Intel 18A process (for 18 ångströms or 1.8 nm). Oh, this development doesn't seem likely to be delayed, and Intel continues to talk of releasing the first Intel 18A chips - the Panther Lake processors - by the end of the year, before mass production in early 2026. However, there is now every reason to believe that Intel will reserve 18A production for itself, and that its foundry division, Intel Foundry, will not be able to offer it to the American group's potential partners. Why this about-turn, when the Intel 18A was intended to enable Intel to resume production for third parties? There are two main reasons: firstly, customers haven't been lining up in droves, and while Amazon, Microsoft and the U.S. Department of Defense have signed up with Intel, heavyweights such as Broadcom and NVIDIA have simply " expressed interest ". The second reason is that Intel is looking to maximize the return on its investments, and therefore prefers to reallocate all its 18A promotion funds to the 14A, a process that should enable it to compete directly with TSMC.
TSMC is making progress and no longer seems to have any competitors able to stand up to it... for the moment? © Tom's Hardware
The same cannot be said of Samsung, which has announced a delay in the 1.4 nm process. The announced competitor to Intel's 14A process or TSMC's A14 (all three are in 14 ångströms or 1.4 nm), Samsung's planned engraving node seems to be encountering major difficulties, given that the South Korean group already had major yield problems with its two versions of 3 nm technology. In fact, rather than aiming for 1.4 nm by 2027, Samsung is now only considering a production launch in 2028 or even 2029 for this process. The brand prefers to focus on improving the second version of its 3 nm process. This process may be less advanced than TSMC's N2, but it is nonetheless very important for many players in the industry and, above all, far more profitable for a company that is clearly seeking to justify its future investments. The problem is that, with Samsung focusing on 3nm and Intel no longer planning to offer 18A to its partners, TSMC finds itself alone on 2nm, despite the fact that this is the most modern etch node for late 2025/early 2026. As we know, lack of competition rarely benefits end-users...
