Intel said yesterday that its 7nm process is six months behind schedule.

The company is looking at pushing more wafers out to foundry.

“We’re going to be pretty pragmatic about if and when we should be making stuff inside or making outside, and making sure that we have optionality to build internally, mix and match inside and outside, or go outside in its entirety if we need to,” says Intel CEO  Bob Swan (pictured).

Coming on the back of the multi-year delay to the Intel 10nm process and TSMC’s successful move into volume 5nm manufacturing, which is equivalent to Intel’s 7nm, it looks as if Intel is now a generation behind the leading edge.

This would have been an unthinkable position five years ago when Intel used to boast it was more than a generation ahead of the industry.

TSMC’s process advantage will help Intel rivals who are TSMC customers like AMD and Nvidia.

Intel’s Ponte Vecchio datacentre graphics chip meant to compete with Nvidia, will not be released until late 2021 or early 2022 and could use foundries, said Swan.

Intel’s first 7nm chip, for PCs, will not ship until late 2022 or early 2023.

Its first 7nm datacentre processor will not ship until the first half of 2023.