Intel invests additional billion dollars in 14nm production due to shortages

Intel is investing an additional $1 billion in its 14nm production to meet the demand for processors. Due to the shortages, the prices of many Intel Core CPUs have risen sharply in recent times.

Bob Swan, Intel’s CFO and interim CEO, discusses the shortfalls in an open letter. This is the first time that Intel has made public statements about the deficits. According to Swan, the cause is the growth in the PC market, both in the consumer market and in the professional segment for servers. Swan says Intel is prioritizing production of Xeon and Core processors and states that there are shortages especially in the lower product segments.

To address the shortages, Intel is investing more money in its 14nm production. A billion dollars will go to facilities in Oregon, Arizona, Ireland and Israel. According to Intel, the investment will lead to it being better able to meet demand. Intel currently makes the majority of its processors at 14nm. The company has been working on the switch to 10nm for years, but has had setbacks.

Swan says 10nm yields are getting better and better and expects Intel to be able to make large numbers of 10nm processors in 2019. Earlier, Intel indicated that the first processors on the smaller process will probably not be released until the end of next year.

Shortages of Intel processors have resulted in price increases and limited availability in recent months. For the past few weeks, this has been very evident in the prices of the Intel Core processors of the Coffee Lake generation, with increases of fifty percent or in some cases even more. Also in the market for entry-level laptops, models with Intel CPUs have recently been more expensive than earlier this year.

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