Today on the company website 3Q 2025 Earnings ReportWhere Intel made its first profit in almost two years Thanks largely to those lifelines, CEO Lip-Bu Tan and CFO David Zinsner explained that the company doesn't have the chips yet. There is currently a shortage that is expected to peak in the first quarter of next year, and in the meantime, leaders say they are going to prioritize server AI chips over some consumer processors as it relates to supply and demand.
“We expect CCG to decline slightly and DCAI to rise strongly as we prioritize capacity for server shipments rather than entry-level client parts,” Intel says. Tan said today that Intel will also release new AI GPUs every year. following Nvidia and AMD in changing their traditional work rhythm to meet the huge demand for artificial intelligence servers. It's unclear what this might mean for those hoping for more Intel gaming GPUs.
While all eyes are on New hot Panther Lake from Intel and its 18A process, to show the world that it can still make the most powerful chips for consumer PCs and produce them in-house, the company has confirmed that it is launching just one SKU this year and phasing out the rest in 2026. Here's another possible reason why: Zinsner hinted today that Panther Lake will be a “pretty expensive” product to begin with, and Intel will instead have to push existing Lunar Lake chips “at least in the first half of the year.”
While Intel has repeatedly pushed back against the idea that its 18A process has low profitability, the company today admitted to investors and analysts that it isn't ready for huge financial success either: Yields are “adequate to ensure supply, but not where we need them to be at the level of profitability,” Zinsner says, suggesting it could be 2026 or even 2027 for “acceptable level of profitability.”
For now, Intel will be “working closely with customers to maximize our available products, including adjusting pricing and mix to shift demand toward products for which we have supply and they have demand” – similar to playing with the prices PC makers charge to put Intel in their computers and point them to Lunar Lake parts rather than new items Tan reiterated today that he does not intend to invest in capacity expansion until there is “certain external demand” and Zinsner says capacity investment next year “will not change expectations significantly.”
Intel says the 18A will be a “long-lasting node” that will power “at least the next three generations of client and server products.” If you were hoping to return to tick-tock days where Intel would alternately reduce the number of its chips and release a new architecture each generation, that doesn't happen here.
But that doesn't mean Intel will cancel its next node, the Intel 14A. as he warned, it is possible. Tan suggested today that customers have stepped in to save 14A and Intel that the company is “excited and more confident” in it, with Zinsner saying it's not only “a good start” but better than 18A so far “in terms of performance and profitability.”
