Intel will again fail on its own and go to TSMC. Nova Lake processors will be manufactured at 2nm at TSMC, not at Intel’s own fabs

It seems that despite Intel’s continued claims about the success of its 18A process, the situation is far from rosy.

WCCF Tech photo

For its next desktop processors, the company will reportedly not use 18A or any of its own process technologies at all, but rather TSMC’s 2nm norms.

We are talking about Nova Lake processors, which are expected only next year. This year, let us remind you, the company will not have a full-fledged new desktop CPU at all.

At the same time, early 2026 should be released mobile Panther Lake, which were originally scheduled for this fall. They will be manufactured using Intel‘s 18A process, and it is not clear why the company does not want to use the same process for Nova Lake.

Here, however, it is worth noting that in the case of the latter we are still talking about the chiplet (or tile) of the CPU, and the rest of the data is not yet available.

However, just a week ago, the company already made a verybig announcementthat it will no longer try to use only its own process technology at all costs, but will constantly choose the best. So maybe it’s actually simple, and TSMC’s 2nm process is simply better than Intel’s 18A.