Intel has announced that they are pushing back the rollout of its 7-nanometer chips to the end of 2022 or early 2023 after identifying an issue that led to “product contamination.”
In an employment call Tuesday, outgoing Intel CEO Bob Swan said the chipmaker had found a “fault mode” in its 7nm production process. This defect causes low production rates in manufacturing, PC Mag reports.
“The company’s 7nm CPU-based production time is moving around six months compared to previous expectations,” Intel said in a statement. “The main driver is Intel’s recent 7nm process output, which is based on recent data, now moving about twelve months behind the company’s internal target.”
Intel says it is confident it can solve the problem and said it believes there are no “fundamental barriers.” The company now expects to see initial loads of their first 7nm chip – CPU for client – in late 2022 or early 2023.
The new delay reflects manufacturing problems the company has experienced many times before. Most recently, in 2019, Intel finally got its 10-nanometer production process on track after three years of delay. The new delay also represents the second time Intel’s 7nm output has been ripped.
These production issues have caused Intel to lose ground to competitors like AMD and Apple, the latter of which is moving away from chips made by Intel to Apple Silicon itself. In December, Daniel Loeb, CEO of Third Point hedge fund, urged the company to explore strategic options despite the decline in chip dominance.
Intel CEO Bob Swan is also set to retire on February 15, replacing VMWare CEO Pat Gelsinger. Prior to taking office, Gelsinger has told employees that Intel should strive to make chips better than a “lifestyle company in Cupertino.”
In early January 2021, it was reported that Intel was considering outsourcing some of its chip manufacturing to Apple Taiwan supplier Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. At the time, Intel was said to be holding out hope that its own production capabilities had improved.