Sources: Nvidia and Broadcom are running 18A manufacturing tests with Intel, and AMD is also evaluating whether Intel's 18A process is suitable for its needs
Chip designers Nvidia (NVDA.O) and Broadcom (AVGO.O) are running manufacturing tests with Intel (INTC.O), two sources familiar …
Context & Ripple Effects
Intel’s 18A foundry effort had already faced a reported Broadcom test setback, making fresh trials by Broadcom and Nvidia more consequential than a routine customer evaluation. AMD’s reported assessment broadens the set of major chip designers examining the process.
The tests are an early qualification step, not evidence of production commitments. Later coverage reported that Nvidia did not continue with 18A, underscoring how difficult it is for foundry evaluations to become durable manufacturing business.
First-order effects
- Intel gets direct technical feedback from three potential external customers on 18A’s fit for their chip designs and manufacturing requirements.
- Nvidia, Broadcom and AMD gain data to compare Intel’s process against their existing manufacturing options without committing chip volumes.
Second-order effects
- Intel’s foundry organization faces greater pressure to convert evaluations into repeatable customer wins; test activity alone does not resolve the concerns implied by the earlier Broadcom setback.
- Competing manufacturing partners retain leverage while designers use qualification work to preserve alternative sourcing paths and negotiate from a broader set of options.
Third-order effects
- If more designers qualify multiple manufacturing routes, advanced-chip production could move incrementally toward a second-source model rather than reliance on a single preferred foundry.
- The enduring divide will be between process announcements and proven customer adoption: external volume commitments, rather than trials, determine whether a foundry becomes a credible independent supplier.
The trend: This is one data point in the push by major chip designers to qualify alternative advanced-node manufacturing capacity while Intel seeks to turn its process technology into an external foundry business.