Microsoft’s next custom chip will be made by Intel

Intel’s relatively new Foundry division – formerly known as Intel Foundry Services until today – just landed a notable order from a big name. According to Bloomberg And The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that his company will leverage Intel’s latest 18A (1.8nm) manufacturing process for an upcoming in-house chip design. But given Intel’s process roadmap, that means we probably won’t see Microsoft’s new chip until 2025.

While neither company has disclosed the nature of said silicon, Microsoft unveiled its custom-built Azure Maia AI Accelerator and Azure Cobalt 100 server chips last November, with deployment planned “early” this year to bolster its own AI services. The Cobalt 100 is based on the Arm architecture, and Intel happens to be optimizing its 18A process for Arm designs since April of last year (it even became an Arm investor later), so there’s some high chance that this collaboration will lead to the next generation Cobalt processor.

In addition to the usual efficiency improvements as node sizes decrease, Intel 18A also offers “the industry’s first rear-end power solution” which, according to the IEEE Spectrum, separates the power interconnect layer from the data interconnect layer on top and moves the former under the silicon substrate – as the name suggests. This apparently allows for better voltage regulation and lower resistance, leading to faster logic and lower power consumption, especially when applied to 3D stacking.

technology Roadmap Adds Intel 14A to the Company’s Industry-Leading Node Plan, in Addition to Several Specialized Node Evolutions and New Advanced Assembly Capabilities and Intel Foundry systems testing. Intel also claimed that its ambitious four-year, five-node process roadmap remains on track and will deliver the industry’s first rear-end power solution.” src=”https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/p1VgnBy65v18GQJ8A682gQ–/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MA–/https://s.yimg.com/os/creatr-uploaded-images/2024-02/51de4900-d138-11ee-97e5-7fc24bbee76a”/>technology Roadmap Adds Intel 14A to the Company’s Industry-Leading Node Plan, in Addition to Several Specialized Node Evolutions and New Advanced Assembly Capabilities and Intel Foundry systems testing. Intel also claimed that its ambitious four-year, five-node process roadmap remains on track and will deliver the industry’s first rear-end power solution.” src=”https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/p1VgnBy65v18GQJ8A682gQ–/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MA–/https://s.yimg.com/os/creatr-uploaded-images/2024-02/51de4900-d138-11ee-97e5-7fc24bbee76a” class=”caas-img”/>

During Intel’s fourth-quarter earnings call, CEO Pat Gelsinger confirmed that “the 18A should be ready for manufacturing in the second half of 24”. Given that Intel’s 18A processors – “Clearwater Forest” for servers and “Panther Lake” for clients – won’t arrive until 2025, there’s a good chance that’s a similar timeline for Microsoft’s next chip.

At Intel’s event earlier today, the executive shared an expanded technology roadmap of the Intel Foundry process, which includes a new 14A (1.4nm) node enabled by ASML “High NA EUV” (extreme ultraviolet at high numerical aperture). According to AnandTechThis 14A jump could help Intel catch up after its late adoption of EUV for its Intel Node 4 (7nm), although production risk won’t occur until late 2026.

Intel Foundry is the brainchild of Gelsinger, who launched the department just after assuming the CEO role in February 2021, as part of his ambitious plan to take Intel head-to-head against TSMC and Samsung in the chipmaking market. under contract. Before Microsoft, Intel Foundry’s customer list already includes MediaTek, Qualcomm and Amazon. The company always goals to become “the second largest external foundry by 2030” in terms of manufacturing turnover, which it says is achievable as early as this year.

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