Chandler plant to produce Intel’s most advanced US-made semiconductor technology
Story Highlights
- Intel unveils Panther Lake processors for high-volume production in Arizona
- Chandler campus to play greater role in processor manufacturing
- Panther Lake offers 50% greater performance than previous generation chips
Intel Corp. unveiled details Thursday about its sophisticated Panther Lake processors and Arizona’s critical role in manufacturing the company’s next-generation personal computer chip technology.
Intel plans to enter high-volume production for its Panther Lake chips – the brains that run computers or other electronic devices – at its Ocotillo plant in Chandler later this year. Panther Lake is the company’s first product built on Intel 18A, which the company claims is the most advanced semiconductor process ever developed and manufactured in the U.S.
“In Arizona, it’s the beating heart of Fab 52. The new fab that we’ve built here is all about enabling capacity for that new technology,” said Kevin O’Buckley, senior vice president and general manager of foundry services at Intel. “For us, from a foundry perspective, it’s all about bringing these new technologies to market for the first time, exercising this new facility, this new team and all these new tools.”
In addition to revealing details about Panther Lake, Intel confirmed it’s launching Clearwater Forest — its first 18A-based server processors — in the first half of 2026.
Although Intel is ramping production of both Panther Lake and Clearwater Forest at its fabs in Oregon and Arizona, the company’s Chandler campus will play a greater role in development and manufacturing of the two processors in the coming year, O’Buckley said.
“Over the next year, what will happen is more and more of that load will be here in Arizona. Our facility in Oregon has generally been our research and development center, and our site in Arizona is our largest manufacturing site in the company,” he said. “The two sites are ramping production now, particularly in the early stage. Then, as time goes on, Arizona will be the center for all of our manufacturing.”