Intel, the daddy of Moore's Law, is, for the first time in history, contemplating whether it will continue at the cutting edge. According to its 10-Q:
"However, if we are unable to secure a significant external customer and meet critical customer milestones for Intel 14A, we may face a situation where developing and manufacturing Intel 14A and future leading-edge nodes would no longer be financially viable. In such a case, we could pause or halt our efforts on Intel 14A and subsequent nodes, as well as various manufacturing expansion projects."
This situation could pave the way for a TSMC monopoly and potentially mark the end of American-made semiconductors.
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Our Q2 2025 results of operations were also affected by an impairment charge and accelerated depreciation related to certain manufacturing assets that were determined to have no remaining operational use. This determination was based on an evaluation of our current process technology node capacities relative to projected market demand for our products and services. These non-cash charges of $797 million, net of certain items, were recorded to cost of sales in Q2 2025, impacting the results for our Intel Foundry segment.
As part of the transformation of the company, we have begun implementing a more disciplined approach to the deployment of capital. The design, development, and manufacturing of leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing process technologies, or nodes, is risky and capital-intensive, and it takes years for capital investments to yield a return. Under our more disciplined approach, we intend to invest capital in future node development and additional or upgraded manufacturing facilities only where we have a clear line of sight to an acceptable return on that capital. We expect to release the first SKU of our first products manufactured on our new leading-edge node, Intel 18A, by the end of 2025, and continue to develop its derivative node, Intel 18A-P, designed for future Intel products and external customers. We are focused on the continued development of Intel 14A, the next generation node beyond Intel 18A and Intel 18A-P, and on securing a significant external customer for such node. However, if we are unable to secure a significant external customer and meet important customer milestones for Intel 14A, we face the prospect that it will not be economical to develop and manufacture Intel 14A and successor leading-edge nodes on a go-forward basis. In such event, we may pause or discontinue our pursuit of Intel 14A and successor nodes and various of our manufacturing expansion projects. While we continue to evaluate Intel 14A for use in future Intel products and our plan includes an initial product designed to utilize Intel 14A, at present we are maintaining the option to design future Intel products requiring nodes with performance beyond Intel 18A and Intel 18A-P to be produced internally or by an external foundry. If we were to discontinue development of Intel 14A and successor nodes, we expect that a majority of our products would continue to be manufactured in our own facilities utilizing our nodes up to Intel 18A-P through at least 2030. By focusing on our customers and delivering the best semiconductor products to the market, manufactured on the most appropriate internal or external node from a performance and cost perspective, and only deploying capital on new nodes and manufacturing facilities where we believe they will yield an attractive return, we believe we can improve the competitiveness of our products business, and the overall financial results for the company.
Separately, in recent months, hostilities in Israel and the surrounding region escalated significantly with direct military actions between Israel and Iran and military strikes by the United States against Iran. There can be no assurance that any existing or future ceasefire agreements will be respected or remain in force, and additional hostilities and escalations remain possible at any time. We continue to monitor the impact this geopolitical conflict could have on our operations in Israel, including potential disruption of our wafer fabrication facility and our product development centers. To date, we have not had a material interruption in either our manufacturing operations or our product development centers. As a significant portion of our revenues are generated from products on Intel 7 manufactured at our fabrication facility in Israel and we are not insured for business interruptions resulting from war or political violence, a disruption of that facility could have a significant adverse impact on our business. Additionally, our property, plant, and equipment assets in Israel are self-insured for losses resulting from war or political violence and could be impacted by the conflict.
In Q1 2025, we made an organizational change to integrate NEX into CCG and DCAI and modified our segment reporting to align to this and certain other business reorganizations. All prior period segment data has been retrospectively adjusted to reflect the way our CODM internally receives information and manages and monitors our operating segment performance. There were no changes to our consolidated financial statements for any prior periods. Our discussion regarding our segments’ results of operations presented below excludes the $1.9 billion of restructuring and other charges in Q2 2025 and similar charges for the other periods presented, as our CODM receives, views and uses information for decision making purposes based upon segment results that exclude such items. “Note 2: Operating Segments” within Notes to Consolidated Condensed Financial Statements of this Form 10-Q provides additional information about our operating segments, including the nature of segment revenues and expenses, and reconciles our segment revenues presented below to our total consolidated net revenues and our segment operating income (loss) presented below to our total consolidated operating income (loss) for each of the periods presented.