Intel shares rise after 18A-P enters risk production

Intel announced at the 2026 VLSI Symposium that its Intel 18A-P manufacturing process has entered risk production. Shares rose about 4.5% in pre-market trading after the development. The stock had closed down 8.45% at $117.05 in the previous session.

Risk production is the initial phase of manufacturing where early production runs are carried out before large-scale commercial availability.

Intel described 18A-P as a performance enhancement built on the existing 18A process. The company noted that designs and intellectual property created for 18A can be used on 18A-P without change, because the process keeps the same two cell heights, 180 nanometres and 160 nanometres.

The company reported measurable improvements versus the base 18A node. At the same power level (iso-power), 18A-P delivers about 9% higher performance. At the same performance level (iso-performance), it reduces power consumption by roughly 18%. Thermal resistance improves by about 20% to 40%.

Engineering changes behind the gains include a new transistor option called Power Boost, a dual-contact, low-resistance design that raises drive current and supports higher operating frequencies without a proportional increase in capacitance. Intel also reduced the electrical resistance of vertical interconnects between chip layers by roughly 10% to 30% through materials and geometry changes.

Intel highlighted that manufacturers can prioritise different benefits by product: systems that need peak speed can use the performance gains, while mobile and business devices can exploit the lower power profile to extend battery life. The company pointed to potential benefits for processors used in artificial-intelligence inference, data-centre workloads and advanced gaming systems where sustained performance and thermal behaviour matter.

Intel described the development as part of executing its manufacturing roadmap and suggested advancing 18A-P could make its foundry offerings more attractive to external customers. It noted earlier plans treated 18A mainly as technology for Intel’s own products and that the approach appears to be evolving under Chief Executive Officer Lip-Bu Tan.

The company reported strong demand for central processors in the first quarter and said it sold parts that had previously been written off. For the second quarter, Intel projected revenue between $13.8 billion and $14.8 billion, above the LSEG estimate of $13.07 billion.