Intel bags external 18A/AP orders, with Microsoft Maia among them

HARDWARE NEWS manhkbrady - Oct 20, 2025, 15:00

Intel seems to have landed at least one major customer for its 18A/18AP lithography node, with Microsoft being one of them. Microsoft is reportedly utilizing Intel’s fabrication facilities to develop the Maia 3 “Griffin” AI accelerator. This information was shared by SemiAccurate’s Charlie Demerjian, and a Twitter/X user named @jumkanlosreve was the one to leak the subscription-only details.

If this initiative proves successful, Microsoft is likely to partner with Intel for several future iterations of its Maia products. This is excellent news for Intel’s foundry division, which requires high-volume clients to thrive. As per SemiAccurate, Intel might have multiple significant foundry clients, but only one has been verified so far.

"If this project goes well, we expect the next few generations of the Maia chip to also be manufactured (fabbed) at Intel. The last sentence is not an evaluation of Intel’s 18A or 18AP process, but rather a general statement about the project as a whole. From a process… https://t.co/78tSKIVD9T
— Jukan (@Jukanlosreve) October 17, 2025

This victory in the foundry space is significant for Intel. For a long time, TSMC has been the go-to choice globally for silicon fabrication. Should Intel perform well with Microsoft and attract additional customers, it could position itself as a genuine competitor to TSMC.

To ensure the success of the 18A node and for Intel Foundry to emerge as an important player in the chip industry, having clients like Microsoft is essential. Other prominent clients and collaborators for Intel's next-generation chip technology include NVIDIA, Broadcom, and ARM. As for the specifics of Microsoft's Maia 3 accelerator, not much information is available. The report suggests that the company might choose the more advanced 18A-P process with RibbonFET and PowerVia technologies, which improve both performance and efficiency.

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Intel reportedly wins Microsoft Maia orders using its 18A/AP node

manhkbrady