Intel’s CFO David Zinsner told a Boston conference that while plenty of customers have tinkered with 18A test chips, none have signed up for any "significant" volume orders yet.

"We get test chips, and then some customers fall out of the test chips. So committed volume is not significant right now, for sure," Zinsner said.

The likes of Nvidia and Broadcom are rumoured to have sent their designs to Intel for a crack at 18A, but Zinsner’s comments confirm none have been convinced to actually cough up serious cash.

This is an almighty cock-up considering how ex-CEO Pat Gelsinger famously said he was betting the company on 18A's success. Instead of basking in a wave of customer orders, Chipzilla is still waiting for someone, anyone, to actually sign something meaningful.

Even the much-trumpeted $15 billion tie-up with Microsoft, announced in February 2024, looks a bit suspect now. There is no evidence it has produced anything tangible yet, and Zinsner’s comments heavily imply that Microsoft has not committed to significant volumes either.

The first 18A chip, Panther Lake, aimed at laptops, is supposedly still due later this year. But given the way things are shaping up, it would not be a surprise if it ends up being a lonely launch with no customers lining up to copy Chipzilla’s homework.

Meanwhile, the rest of the industry is getting busy inking deals with TSMC. AMD, for one, has already pledged its upcoming Venice server CPU, based on Zen 6 cores, to TSMC’s 2nm (N2) node.

While Venice won’t launch for a while, those contracts are being sorted now, meaning if Chipzilla does not get its act together soon, 18A could be left standing at the altar.