Intel's John Pitzer, a Vice President in charge of Corporate Planning & Investor Relations, announced that yields for "Panther Lake" on the Intel 18A node have been increasing by approximately 7% each month. At the RBC Capital Markets Global TMT conference, we received an update on Intel Foundry and its developments. This reported growth rate aligns with industry expectations for a healthy ramp-up. After months of reports about poor yields, it's reassuring to see that the yield curve for the 18A node is generally improving, ensuring that Panther Lake chips will be delivered on time. Over the past seven to eight months, the yield curve has shown consistent improvement. If the 7% monthly growth continues, Intel could potentially scale Panther Lake into volume production without significantly increasing per-unit costs. However, the speed at which customers receive chips will depend on the absolute ramp speed and capacity decisions.

John Pitzer We clearly want to do better on the gross margin side. I think what's important is when Lip-Bu joined in March, he was unsatisfied by yields and he was unhappy that the progress on yields was sort of erratic. I think one of the things that's changed dramatically over the last 7 or 8 months, is we now have a predictable path for yield improvement. We've talked about in the past that the industry average yield improvement on a new ramp is about 7% per month. And we are now on that curve for Panther Lake, which is giving us some confidence as we launched the product this quarter. And like I said, if you go to CES in January, you can hear a lot more about that.