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Reuters reported on December 24, 2025, that NVIDIA had stopped moving forward with an evaluation of Intel’s 18A manufacturing process, citing two people familiar with the matter. The report was not a public announcement by either company, and it did not establish that NVIDIA canceled a production order. The distinction matters: NVIDIA’s separate $5 billion investment in Intel and their announced product collaboration did not publicly commit NVIDIA to manufacture chips on 18A.
What NVIDIA reportedly stopped
The reported decision concerned an evaluation of Intel 18A, not a confirmed, ongoing production contract. Reuters said NVIDIA had tested whether its chips could be made using the process and then stopped moving forward. The report did not explain why, and neither company publicly confirmed the specific decision in the available reporting. Reuters’ report, reproduced by Investing.com, cited two unnamed sources.
That is materially different from saying NVIDIA canceled an order or rejected Intel as a supplier. A manufacturing evaluation can help a chip designer assess process compatibility; it is not itself a commitment to qualify a commercial product or buy production capacity. Reuters had earlier reported that NVIDIA and Broadcom were testing Intel manufacturing technology, while noting that testing did not guarantee a long-term deal. That earlier report likewise described testing, not a production agreement.
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On September 18, 2025, Intel and NVIDIA announced a broad collaboration and NVIDIA’s planned $5 billion purchase of Intel common stock at $23.28 per share. Their announcement covered Intel-designed custom x86 CPUs for NVIDIA data-center systems, PC system-on-chips incorporating NVIDIA RTX GPU chiplets, and work to connect their architectures using NVIDIA NVLink. It did not announce that NVIDIA would manufacture its own GPUs or other chips on Intel 18A. Intel’s announcement sets out the public terms.
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Intel later reported that the private placement was completed in December 2025 and raised $5.0 billion. Intel’s SEC filing describes the completed investment; it does not turn it into a disclosed 18A manufacturing order. An equity investment can accompany strategic cooperation while leaving each company free to make separate sourcing decisions. The public information supports the existence of the investment and collaboration, not a guaranteed foundry relationship for NVIDIA’s chips.
Why the report matters to Intel Foundry
Intel Foundry needs outside customers as well as demand from Intel’s own product businesses. A major external customer evaluating an advanced process would be a meaningful opportunity: winning such work could validate the process’s appeal to other chip designers and help fill manufacturing capacity. If NVIDIA does not proceed, that is a setback to Intel’s effort to convert interest in 18A into external business.
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But the commercial implication should not be overstated. No public production order was identified, so the reported halt does not establish a specific amount of lost revenue. Nor does it prove that 18A is technically defective. Reuters’ report did not disclose whether the evaluation ended because of yield, performance, cost, schedule, design compatibility, packaging, or a change in NVIDIA’s plans. Those are possible considerations in a foundry decision, not confirmed reasons in this case.
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Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →For investors, the useful distinction is between customer conversion and process viability. Intel can make progress using 18A for its own products while still needing to persuade outside designers that the process, design tools, manufacturing execution, cost, packaging, and timing suit their products. A single reported evaluation does not settle either question.
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What Intel 18A is
Intel describes 18A as a roughly 2-nanometer-class process. Its two highlighted technologies are RibbonFET, a gate-all-around transistor design, and PowerVia, a backside power-delivery approach intended to reduce congestion in front-side wiring and improve power delivery. Intel’s technical page claims up to 18% higher performance at the same power, 38% lower power at the same performance, and about 30% greater chip density compared with Intel 3. These are Intel’s published claims, not independent measurements of NVIDIA’s test results. Intel’s 18A technical page provides its descriptions and figures.
“18A” is a process-node name, not a literal measurement that should be read as a transistor feature exactly 18 angstroms wide. And performance figures for a process do not, by themselves, establish that a particular large GPU or accelerator can be manufactured at the required yield, cost, and schedule. Product architecture, design enablement, packaging, memory integration, and qualification all matter.
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Intel’s own 18A progress is a separate data point
Intel said in April 2025 that 18A was in risk production and was expected to reach volume manufacturing during 2025. It subsequently identified Panther Lake as its first client product built on 18A and Clearwater Forest as an 18A-based server product. Intel’s later disclosures said 18A entered high-volume manufacturing in late 2025 at its Arizona and Oregon fabs. In June 2026, Intel said the performance-enhanced 18A-P variant had entered risk production. See Intel’s April 2025 update, its Panther Lake announcement, and its June 2026 process update.
These milestones are evidence of Intel’s stated progress on its own manufacturing roadmap. They do not show that NVIDIA adopted 18A, independently validate Intel’s yield or performance claims, or reveal why NVIDIA reportedly stopped its evaluation. The status of Intel’s internal products and the success of its external-foundry sales effort are related but separate questions.
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What remains unknown
- Why NVIDIA stopped moving forward, and whether technical, financial, timing, or product-planning factors were decisive.
- Whether the evaluation was ended outright, paused, or deprioritized.
- Which specific process configuration or design was evaluated. There is no basis in the cited reporting to say NVIDIA tested 18A-P.
- Whether NVIDIA might consider Intel Foundry for a future product or process generation.
Until the companies disclose more, it is safest to describe this as a reported halt to an 18A evaluation—not a canceled manufacturing contract, a verdict on every use of 18A, or an end to the wider Intel–NVIDIA collaboration.
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