LAS VEGAS – It lacked the sizzle of humanoid robots or the latest artificial intelligence (AI) innovation, but Intel Corp. achieved a pivotal breakthrough of sorts Tuesday with the official launch of its Core Ultra Series 3 processors, marking the first time the struggling chipmaker has brought a product to market using its advanced 18A manufacturing process.
The announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show here represented a crucial test for Intel, which has spent years trying to reverse manufacturing setbacks that eroded its competitive position against rivals AMD and Arm. The company confirmed that the chips, codenamed Panther Lake, are now in production and available for order, with global availability starting Jan. 27 and rolling out throughout the first half of the year.
Investors responded enthusiastically to the news, sending Intel shares up 6.5% in trading Wednesday.
Intel has been trapped in what industry observers describe as a negative cycle: Manufacturing missteps produced less competitive chips, leading to declining sales that left factories underutilized and made recovery increasingly difficult.
The 18A launch represents Intel’s most significant manufacturing technology advancement in about a decade. Under former CEO Pat Gelsinger, the company attempted to address factory underutilization by courting outside customers and accelerating the introduction of advanced manufacturing technologies. However, analysts say Gelsinger set unrealistic timelines that Intel repeatedly failed to meet, and no major customers committed to using Intel’s fabrication facilities.
Current CEO Lip-Bu Tan has continued the manufacturing overhaul, supported by substantial investments from the U.S. government and NVIDIA Corp.
While Intel has not yet secured a marquee customer like Broadcom Inc. or NVIDIA for its 18A process, the successful launch could attract chip designers to its next-generation manufacturing nodes, 18A-P and 14A, according to analysts.
While the chipmaker has yet to release comprehensive benchmark data for its Panther Lake processors, the company claims the new chips deliver more than 10% improvement in single-threaded performance at equivalent power consumption compared to its predecessor, Lunar Lake. Multi-threaded performance shows a more dramatic leap, with Intel reporting gains exceeding 50% within the same power envelope.
Beyond 14 consumer SKUs unveiled at CES, Intel revealed plans to expand Panther Lake into embedded applications. The company said it has tested and certified the processors for use in robotics, automation, and healthcare systems, though specific details about these edge implementations remain limited. Intel expects embedded systems featuring Panther Lake to begin appearing in the second quarter of 2026.
“This new generation of processors is needed to remain competitive in the PC space where challengers, primarily AMD with a bit of Qualcomm, have been gaining share,” analyst Jack Gold, who dubbed CES the “Chips” Electronics Show in a note Wednesday.
“Aside from the performance improvement, these chips will be manufactured in-house, showing that Intel’s 18A process is real and ready for volume production, and made in the USA,” Gold wrote. “This product is critical to reinvigorate Intel manufacturing, and is key to Intel foundry’s move to next generation nodes, as well as Intel’s ability to significantly increase its margins by not having to have its chips manufacturers externally at TSMC.”
