Intel’s ex-boss has cheered the arrival of Panther Lake and pointed at Washington to help lure foundry punters away from TSMC.
Pat [kicking] Gelsinger has popped up to remind everyone that shipping a milestone once is nice, but doing it repeatedly is what keeps the lights on.
Troubled Chipzilla used CES to bang the drum for Panther Lake, its first client platform built on the 18A process, and it is meant to be proof that the foundry push is not just PowerPoint. If Chipzilla wants fabless outfits like Nvidia to trust it with real silicon, Panther Lake on 18A has to look like the start of a habit, not a miracle.
Gelsinger framed 18A and Panther Lake as major markers, claiming he helped lay the groundwork.
“Well, first I’d say congratulations to the Intel team, getting 18A done, getting Panther Lake, the new chip that they announced, I worked hard on those.”
A lot of the brag rests on the plumbing behind 18A, with PowerVia and RibbonFET held up as the tech that makes the node worth the fuss. Gelsinger even handed Panther Lake samples to Lenovo on his way out, which is a tidy bit of theatre for a man leaving under shareholder and board pressure.
The awkward part is that foundry credibility does not come from stage demos; it comes from signed customers, and that cupboard still looks thin. Gelsinger said the real lever is the US government, not only sweeteners like the CHIPS Act but also tariffs that could make reshoring feel less optional.
He put it like this: “You know, I’d be driving that hard. Obviously, the relationship with the U.S. government is critical in that capacity. Obviously, I view the government policies here, right? You know, it’s not just chips, but it’s also tariff policy. It’s also reshoring the supply chains to go with it. All of these things. This is hard.”
Gelsinger added: “It took decades for them to move away. It will take a while to get them back in the U.S. This week was a great milestone at CES, but there’s a lot more work to do. And to me, every day you are selling those capabilities to bring foundry and wafers back to the United States.”
Chipzilla’s next headache is turning process roadmaps into purchase orders, with 18A-P and 14A pitched as the next hooks for external adoption. Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan has been talking up 14A progress, and now he has to make that confidence contagious.
