On April 22, Digitimes reported that according to sources, TSMC's next-generation 2nm process has identified two major customers. In addition to Apple, Intel will also be the first to use the 2nm process, get the same VIP level treatment as Apple, and CPU performance may take off in an all-round way.
It has long been reported that Intel has become the largest customer of TSMC's 3nm process, and the number of orders is even more than Apple. The next generation of mobile processors and server processors will be based on the 3nm process, hoping to improve cpu performance, surpass AMD and regain market leadership.
TSMC and Intel have not publicly responded to the cooperation between the two sides, but at Intel's investment meeting in March, it was indeed mentioned that some products were produced using the 3nm process, but they did not name TSMC. At the end of last year, Intel's CEO also personally went to Taiwan to meet with TSMC executives, and the outside world speculated that it was discussing 3nm foundry and capacity allocation. Therefore, Intel's debut TSMC 3nm is almost a fact, and it may share the initial production capacity with Apple.
Intel continues to get TSMC's 2nm process capacity, which shows that its card surface has not lost Apple. To know that almost all large manufacturers attach great importance to advanced technology, AMD, Qualcomm, MediaTek and other manufacturers must also want to use the first batch of 2nm process, but the initial production capacity is limited after all, TSMC will only give priority to the largest VIP customers. Intel and TSMC first established cooperation on the 3nm process, and now they have successfully obtained the 2nm process capacity, which is estimated to have a lot of blood costs, and the order volume may not be less than Apple.
However, the 2nm process is not expected to be mass-produced until 2025, and it is too early to discuss. However, the 3nm process will be trial production in the second half of this year, and it should be able to mass-produce before the end of the year. Apple's A16 chip is unable to catch up with the 3nm process, may be launched by the M2 chip, and Intel's 13th generation Core is also expected to be produced based on the 3nm process.
The 12th generation of Core processors released last year made everyone shine, and the hybrid architecture design not only brought stronger performance performance, but also significantly improved power consumption compared to the previous generation. If the 13th generation Core can have the blessing of the 3nm process, the performance and power consumption will be greatly upgraded again, which may create huge pressure on AMD. Xiao Lei is still very optimistic about Intel, and hopes to bring us more surprises next.