After a series of unsuccessful releases, Intel is betting on Nova Lake and its own 18A process.
Intel is preparing for another attempt to regain leadership in the desktop processor segment. At the Goldman Sachs 2025 conference, Vice President of Corporate Planning John Pitzer stated: "As Nova Lake comes out late next year, in 2027 we will take a leading position in all areas of desktop PCs."
The new generation will be Intel's first mass-produced solution using its own Intel 18A process. This is a critical step: until now, most of the company's current chips, including Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake, have been manufactured at TSMC factories. This reduced profitability and limited control over the production cycle.
With Panther Lake, a gradual return to internal production will begin, but it is focused on energy-efficient laptops. Nova Lake, a line covering both mobile and desktop solutions, will be the real marker of the change of course. Both the technological recovery and the financial stability of Intel Foundry, which remains unprofitable, depend directly on it.
At the same time, the focus is not only on the transition to its own process technology. Rumor has it that the flagship Nova Lake will receive up to 52 cores, which should provide a significant increase in performance in multi-threaded tasks. However, AMD is not wasting time either: leaks indicate new chips with record "out-of-the-box" frequencies, which may complicate competition.
The launch of Nova Lake is scheduled for the end of 2026. It is this architecture that should demonstrate that Intel is not only able to regain technological leadership, but also to produce competitive chips at its own facilities. Whether this will succeed will become clear in a year.
