High-end semiconductors "made in USA" Broadcom and Nvidia test chip production in Intel's 18A process

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According to media reports, the fabless chip developers Nvidia and Broadcom are currently conducting production tests of chips in Intel's 18A process. AMD is also said to be considering the production of test chips in the high-end process of the struggling chip giant.

According to a report by the Reuters news agency, Nvidia and Broadcom are currently having initial test chips manufactured using the 18A process at Intel. This is reported by Reuters, citing two unnamed sources familiar with the matter. These manufacturing tests are reportedly considerations for a potential contract award to Intel's foundry business worth several hundred million US dollars.

The market introduction of Intel's high-end process 18A—standing for 18 angstroms or 1.8 nanometers—had been delayed several times, and the planned foundry business of the struggling chip manufacturer Intel failed to take off despite multiple efforts. This contributed significantly to the record losses reported by the once world-leading semiconductor company last year. However, for 2025, Intel has announced the ability to deliver the first products manufactured using the 18A process node. The process, which relies on RibbonFET and PowerVia, promises greater scalability and efficiency of processors and is set to compete directly with TSMC's currently leading N2 process.

According to Reuters, AMD, Intel's direct competitor in the x86 processor segment, is currently considering having initial test chips manufactured using the 18A process. However, it is still unclear whether the process node is suitable for its own needs.

Unclear whether RibbonFET and PowerVia are suitable for the desired requirements

Neither AMD nor Broadcom or Nvidia have commented on these reports so far. Intel is also reserved in its statements: "We do not comment on specific customers," a company spokesperson told Reuters, "but we continue to see strong interest and engagement for Intel 18A across our entire ecosystem."

The tests by Nvidia and Broadcom are reportedly not aimed at specific products. Instead, they involve samples intended to demonstrate whether Intel's leading process node is suitable for the requirements of the two fabless companies. Specifically, the behavior and capabilities of the semiconductors fabricated using the 18A process are to be tested. Nvidia is primarily interested in the production of GPUs, while Intel has so far prioritized the fabrication of CPUs with its process nodes. It remains to be seen whether the high parallelism characteristic of GPUs, which is particularly suitable for applications like AI acceleration and inference, can be satisfactorily achieved with Intel's high-end process.

Initial tests had disappointed—will "made in USA" lead to a rethink?

However, the production tests are no guarantee that Intel will ultimately receive new orders. Last year, Reuters reported on initial test efforts by Broadcom with Intel's leading foundry process. At that time, the news agency noted that Broadcom executives and engineers were disappointed with the results. However, they expressed the intention to test the process again at a later date. This seems to be happening now.

Such test productions can extend over months. According to Reuters, it is still unclear when this testing phase for the two manufacturers began. It is conceivable that this test production might be related to the Trump administration's threats to potentially impose high tariffs of up to 100 percent on semiconductors from abroad. TSMC's 2-nanometer process N2 is currently considered the world's leading process, yet the world's leading semiconductor foundry reserves the right to operate its most advanced production line exclusively in Taiwan. The TSMC sites in Arizona, which are set to begin operation soon, are expected to produce chips using the 5-nanometer process. However, TSMC is considering investing an additional 100 billion USD into its American production lines.

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