The massive image: The previous a number of years have seen a number of the worst figures in Intel’s 56-year historical past. The corporate faces bother on all fronts, from foundry to client processors and server chips. As Intel reorganizes its foundry operations, new evaluation paints a grim image of its server enterprise’s present trajectory.
In line with SemiAnalysis, Intel’s 2024 server processor quantity declined for the third 12 months straight. Following the precipitous drop in 2023, the corporate’s information heart enterprise has reached a 14-year low.
Based mostly on information from Intel’s 10K reviews, analysts have charted Intel’s information heart CPU quantity since 2011. The numbers aren’t actual and seem as a share of 2011’s whole, however they reveal a peak in 2021, adopted by an ongoing decline. Probably the most dramatic fall occurred in 2023 when server processor quantity plummeted by 50 p.c of 2011’s rely. Intel’s quantity has fallen by over half since 2021.
Intel’s server CPU chip quantity hit the bottom in final 14 years for the second straight 12 months in 2024. It is <50% of the earlier peak of 2020. With Intel admitting the aggressive hole even with Granite Rapids and Clearwater Forest pushout, the product chief has as soon as once more dropped… pic.twitter.com/0QpWzJFVtg
– Sravan Kundojjala (@SKundojjala) February 3, 2025
Chipzilla is dropping floor to AMD within the client and server CPU markets. Late final 12 months, the corporate admitted that it has no plans to reply to the 3D V-Cache that has made Group Crimson’s Ryzen chips the undisputed masters of gaming desktops. As an alternative, Intel is bringing related know-how to its upcoming Clearwater Forest information heart processors as a result of it considers servers a extra important market.
Set for launch someday this 12 months, Clearwater Forest and Intel’s laptop-focused Panther Lake CPUs will even determine the destiny of one other enterprise the corporate struggles with: semiconductor manufacturing. Each will show whether or not the corporate’s 18A node can compete in opposition to TSMC’s main 3nm and 2nm processes.
Additionally learn: Intel’s takeover dilemma: A Gordian knot of funding and politics
Nonetheless, Intel already turned to TSMC for final 12 months’s Lunar Lake pocket book CPUs and should achieve this once more for future chips in all sectors. The desktop Nova Lake processors, anticipated to emerge in 2026, will use transistors from Intel and one other producer, doubtless TSMC.
Amid questions over the survival of Intel semiconductors, the corporate spun its foundry division right into a separate entity that it admits should “earn” its enterprise identical to TSMC or Samsung. Intel claims that different potential shoppers have efficiently powered on merchandise based mostly on 18A, suggesting that the node’s improvement is progressing easily.
Sliding income and different issues led to the current departure of CEO Pat Gelsinger, prompting Invoice Gates to say that Intel has “misplaced its means.” The Microsoft co-founder famous that Intel has fallen behind in foundry and chip design over the past decade.
Rumors of a buyout are circulating, however it stays unclear who, if anybody, would wish to purchase Intel.
