Intel Panther Lake CPU profitability reportedly afflicted by low 18A yields

Despite successfully powering on, Intel's upcoming laptop chips based on the Panther Lake architecture still do not have a release date. Some opine it could be early 2026, while others state it could be earlier. There's no way to find out because of Intel's stoic silence on the matter. A new report aims to shed some light on what is going on with Panther Lake.

Sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, "Intel may have to sell some chips at a lower profit margin or at a loss," tacitly implying that the yield situation with Intel 18A has still not improved. While yield numbers are meaningless without an accompanying die size, a previous leak said it would be approximately 274.2 mm2, making it slightly larger than Lunar Lake (~220 mm2).

The report also states Intel was aiming for 50% yields at some point to break even, but if it has to sell chips at a loss, that clearly hasn't happened yet. Apparently, "Panther Lake chips had about three times too many defects for Intel to start high-volume production". It also states the yields were 10%, a speculation that was also made by an earlier report and heavily pushed back against by Intel.

Nevertheless, with Intel 18A effectively walled off to new external clients, its only purpose is to make enough Panther Lake and Clearwater Forest chips successfully. Its next-gen Nova Lake desktop chips will leverage TSMC's cutting-edge 2 nm node for its CPU tile and a mix of suppliers for other components. Additionally, it will set the stage for its successor 18A-P and the next-gen 14A, which is slated to be Intel's grand comeback into the foundry business.