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Reuters reported on December 24, 2025, that NVIDIA had stopped moving forward after evaluating Intel’s 18A manufacturing process. The report, citing two people familiar with the matter, did not describe a canceled production order, and neither company publicly confirmed the specific decision. Crucially, NVIDIA’s separate $5 billion investment in Intel did not include a publicly announced commitment to manufacture NVIDIA chips on 18A.
What NVIDIA reportedly stopped
The reported decision concerned an evaluation of Intel Foundry’s 18A process: work intended to assess whether the process was suitable for NVIDIA chips. Reuters said NVIDIA had tested the technology and then stopped moving forward. The report did not establish whether the program was permanently ended, paused, or simply deprioritized, and it did not disclose the reason.
That distinction matters. A manufacturing evaluation is an early step, not a production contract. Reuters had previously reported that NVIDIA and Broadcom were testing Intel manufacturing technology, while noting that testing did not guarantee a long-term commercial deal. No public source identified here establishes that NVIDIA had placed a binding order to manufacture commercial chips on 18A. Reuters’ earlier report on the testing provides context for why a test program should not be mistaken for a customer commitment.
The December report therefore supports a narrow conclusion: NVIDIA reportedly stopped advancing one 18A evaluation. It does not show that NVIDIA canceled an Intel manufacturing order or rejected every future opportunity to use Intel Foundry.
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What the $5 billion deal did—and did not—cover
On September 18, 2025, Intel and NVIDIA announced a broader collaboration alongside NVIDIA’s plan to invest $5 billion in Intel common stock at $23.28 per share. The announced work included Intel-designed custom x86 CPUs for NVIDIA data-center systems, PC system-on-chips incorporating NVIDIA RTX GPU chiplets, and connecting the companies’ architectures using NVIDIA NVLink.
The announcement did not say that NVIDIA would manufacture its own GPUs or other chips on Intel 18A. Intel later disclosed that the private placement was completed in December 2025 and raised $5.0 billion. That made the investment real, but it did not turn it into a disclosed 18A production contract. Intel’s announcement describes the collaboration and investment; its later SEC filing records the placement’s completion.
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An equity investment and a supplier decision are separate choices. Companies can pursue product collaboration while retaining flexibility over where particular chips are made. The public announcement supports the existence of the collaboration, not a promise that NVIDIA would place a leading-edge GPU program at Intel. Factors such as design compatibility, yield, cost, schedule, capacity, and packaging can affect foundry selection in general, but the available reporting does not identify any of them as NVIDIA’s reason for stopping this evaluation.
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Why the report is a setback for Intel Foundry
Intel Foundry wants to make chips not only for Intel but also for outside customers. Converting an evaluation by a high-profile designer such as NVIDIA into a substantial production program would have been a powerful signal that external customers were prepared to use Intel’s advanced manufacturing services. A reported halt weakens that signal and is a setback for Intel’s effort to win major external business.
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But the commercial implication should not be overstated. Without a publicly identified production order, there is no disclosed NVIDIA 18A revenue stream to count as lost. Nor does the report establish that the process failed a technical test. It leaves open why NVIDIA stopped, what criteria it applied, and whether it might consider Intel for a different product or future process.
Node selection is also product-specific. A process that is suitable for one class of chip may not be the right fit for a particular GPU or accelerator. And advanced-chip manufacturing depends on more than transistor technology: design tools and rules, yields, packaging, memory integration, power delivery, test capacity, cost, and timing all matter. An evaluation can end without proving that a process is unusable for other designs or for the foundry’s own products.
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What Intel 18A is
Intel describes 18A as a roughly 2-nanometer-class process. Its two headline technologies are RibbonFET, Intel’s gate-all-around transistor design, and PowerVia, a backside power-delivery approach intended to reduce congestion in front-side wiring and improve power delivery. “18A” is a process-node name, not a literal measurement of a transistor’s gate length.
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Intel’s published materials claim up to 18% higher performance at the same power, 38% lower power at the same performance, and about 30% better chip density compared with Intel 3. These are Intel’s figures, not independent verification of performance on a specific customer design. Intel’s 18A technical page describes the process and its claims.
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Intel’s own 18A progress is a separate question
Intel said in April 2025 that 18A was in risk production and was expected to reach volume manufacturing during 2025. The company subsequently identified Panther Lake as its first client product built on 18A and Clearwater Forest as an 18A-based server product. Intel also said Fab 52 in Arizona was being used for 18A manufacturing.
In a later filing, Intel said 18A had entered high-volume manufacturing in late 2025 at its Arizona and Oregon fabs. On June 16, 2026, Intel announced that the performance-enhanced 18A-P variant had entered risk production. These are meaningful indicators of Intel’s stated progress using the process for its own products and advancing its process family. They do not demonstrate that NVIDIA’s particular design was suitable for 18A or that an outside customer had adopted it. Intel’s Panther Lake announcement and its June 2026 process update provide the company’s descriptions of those milestones.
What remains unknown
- Why NVIDIA stopped moving forward with the evaluation.
- Whether the decision was driven by technical results, economics, schedule, design compatibility, packaging, or a change in product plans.
- Whether the program ended permanently or could be revisited.
- Which specific 18A configuration was evaluated; the report does not establish that NVIDIA tested 18A-P.
- Whether NVIDIA will consider Intel Foundry for another product or a future process.
Until the companies disclose more, those questions should remain open. The report is evidence about one evaluation, not a public verdict on every capability of 18A.
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