The large image: The previous a number of years have seen among 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.
Based on SemiAnalysis, Intel’s 2024 server processor quantity declined for the third yr 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 experiences, analysts have charted Intel’s information heart CPU quantity since 2011. The numbers aren’t precise and seem as a proportion of 2011’s complete, however they reveal a peak in 2021, adopted by an ongoing decline. Essentially the most dramatic fall occurred in 2023 when server processor quantity plummeted by 50 % of 2011’s depend. 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 yr 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 shedding floor to AMD within the client and server CPU markets. Late final yr, the corporate admitted that it has no plans to reply to the 3D V-Cache that has made Staff Pink’s Ryzen chips the undisputed masters of gaming desktops. As a substitute, Intel is bringing related know-how to its upcoming Clearwater Forest information heart processors as a result of it considers servers a extra essential market.
Set for launch someday this yr, Clearwater Forest and Intel’s laptop-focused Panther Lake CPUs can 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 towards TSMC’s main 3nm and 2nm processes.
Additionally learn: Intel’s takeover dilemma: A Gordian knot of funding and politics
Nevertheless, Intel already turned to TSMC for final yr’s Lunar Lake pocket book CPUs and will accomplish that 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, probably 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 similar to TSMC or Samsung. Intel claims that different potential shoppers have efficiently powered on merchandise based mostly on 18A, suggesting that the node’s growth is progressing easily.
Sliding income and different issues led to the latest departure of CEO Pat Gelsinger, prompting Invoice Gates to say that Intel has “misplaced its manner.” 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, but it surely stays unclear who, if anybody, would wish to purchase Intel.
