Exciting news for chip stock Intel (INTC) holders, as its 18A production node has finally come on line. This is supposed to be the process that makes or breaks the company, reports note, so seeing how it finally does in the real world should be a major development. And so far, investors are not especially pleased, with shares slipping modestly in Monday afternoon’s trading.
The new process now has its own website, reports note, that runs down several key factors of the process ranging from milestones in production to milestones the process has achieved to even specifications around the process. It also calls attention to the fact that the 1.8 nanometer fabrication technology involved in the process is not only a first for Intel, but also a process being used by a range of developers and the United States government.
This kind of horn-blowing is unusual for Intel. Some are already starting to wonder if it is a public relations stunt designed to take some heat off the beleaguered company and instead give it—and its investors—reason for confidence. The first chips are expected to roll out of the process in the middle of 2025, just a few months away.
“Spreadsheet and PowerPoint Snakes”
Meanwhile, another former executive with Intel, Raja Koduri, recently offered up an article on X, formerly Twitter, that assigned some blame about Intel’s current situation. Koduri specifically targeted what he called “spreadsheet and PowerPoint snakes” for many of Intel’s woes, suggesting that certain “bureaucratic processes” are getting in the way of production and innovation at Intel.
A focus on accounting did not help either, as Koduri described how Intel would often “…optimize for minimizing quarterly losses while missing the bigger picture.” He also described how these processes would “…multiply and coil around engineers, constraining their ability to execute on the product roadmap with the boldness it requires.”
Is Intel a Buy, Hold or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on INTC stock based on one Buy, 27 Holds and five Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 42.35% loss in its share price over the past year, the average INTC price target of $22.69 per share implies 7.31% downside risk.
