According to Taiwan Economic Daily, Intel is going full throttle with TSMC’s cutting-edge tech for Nova Lake, a move that casts doubt on the firm’s previous boasts about the supremacy of its 18A process.

For a node hyped to outperform even Intel 3 with PowerVia and other silicon party tricks, it’s not getting much love in the flagship lane.

Intel’s Products CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus said the outfit will look outside its own foundry if customer expectations aren’t met.

“We’ll dual-source if we have to,” she said—and clearly, they have to.

TSMC’s 2nm process is shaping up to be the semiconductor equivalent of "It’s the foundry equivalent of a lifeboat on the Titanic—there aren’t many seats, and nobody wants to be the one left clinging to 5nm while Celine Dion sings

AMD has already booked it for its EPYC “Venice” chips, Apple is queuing up for the iPhone 18’s A20 chip, and now Intel is sliding into the VIP tent with Nova Lake. But with great wafers come great expenses. The 2nm process is reportedly far costlier than previous generations, not to mention prone to the usual geopolitical jitters that hover around Taiwan’s supply chain.

Chipzilla insists it’s not abandoning its fabs entirely despite the external sourcing. 18A is still expected to appear in Panther Lake SoCs and Clearwater Forest Xeons. Whether that’s just to keep the lights on at Intel Foundry or a genuine vote of confidence remains to be seen.