Intel’s 18A (1.8nm) manufacturing process, in which it has invested with high hopes, has announced its first major external customer: Microsoft. Intel and Microsoft announced in early 2024 that they would develop a custom processor for this process, but details about the chip’s purpose were not disclosed.
Intel to Develop Processors for Microsoft
However, a key source reported that Intel Foundry is preparing to produce an AI processor for Microsoft on its 18A production line. So far, Microsoft is the only major external customer Intel Foundry has officially announced for 18A technology.
Known for its software and cloud services, Microsoft has an advanced hardware development team that designs custom processors for data centers, such as Cobalt CPUs, DPUs, and Maia AI accelerators. It appears that one of Microsoft’s next-generation AI processors will be manufactured by Intel Foundry.
If the rumors are confirmed, this agreement will provide Microsoft with the advantage of a US-based supply chain, making it less vulnerable to the capacity constraints faced by Asian manufacturers like TSMC. Furthermore, considering the US government’s significant investments in Intel, this collaboration could also benefit Microsoft strategically.
This development demonstrates that Intel’s 18A, or 18A-P, process with an 8% increased performance, is maturing not only for its own Xeon 6+ “Clearwater Forest” processors but also for external customers. The fact that a technology giant like Microsoft has chosen this process indicates that Intel’s production efficiency has reached sufficiently high levels.
Indeed, low efficiency in the production of a very large die processor like Maia imposes significant costs. Microsoft’s first-generation Maia 100 processor was a massive 820 mm² silicon chip containing 105 billion transistors. This size is even larger than Nvidia’s H100 (814 mm²) and B200/B300 (750 mm²) chips.
If the next-generation processors to be produced at Intel Foundry also feature dies similarly close to the reticle boundary, this would indicate that Intel’s 18A process has now achieved low defect rates. Microsoft aims to achieve higher performance, better efficiency, and lower operating costs by optimizing its hardware and software together.
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