Intel shows off new computers that are central to comeback bid
The performance of the new products is vital to the turnaround plans of the embattled chipmaker
[SAN FRANCISCO] Intel showed off laptop computers based on processors with a new design, part of the chipmaker’s effort to make its products competitive again.
Updated notebooks from the world’s biggest manufacturers will rely on Intel processors with the Panther Lake design and an improved manufacturing technique, the chipmaker said on Monday (Jan 5) during a presentation at the CES trade show in Las Vegas. Orders for consumer laptops with the new chips start on Tuesday, the company said, with global availability beginning on Jan 27.
The new laptops will offer consumers a leap in performance, particularly in running artificial intelligence (AI) software, according to Jim Johnson, an Intel senior vice-president. The company earlier introduced the Panther Lake technology at an event in October.
“The industry and Intel are both at a strategic inflection point in 2026,” Johnson said. AI is “a huge opportunity for all of us”.
The company also said that it plans to launch a platform for handheld video game devices, with more news coming from partners later this year.
The performance of the new products is vital to the turnaround plans of the embattled chipmaker, which is now backed by the US government. They are designed to regain market share and be proof that the company’s manufacturing is good enough to win made-to-order chip contracts, a still-nascent business for Intel.
Chief executive officer Tan Lip-Bu needs his company’s operations to start showing progress. In 2025, he focused on cutting costs and attracting investments in an unusual series of deals. The US government has become the chipmaker’s biggest backer as part of an agreement brokered by the White House, and Nvidia and SoftBank Group have acquired multibillion-dollar stakes.
Though the dealmaking has lifted Intel’s stock price, the company still needs to prove that the underlying business is regaining strength.
Intel’s push to make chips for outside clients, becoming what’s known as a foundry, means going up against Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). That company dominates the foundry industry, with South Korea’s Samsung Electronics serving as a distant second. Intel itself has outsourced some production to TSMC, an acknowledgement of that company’s capabilities.
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Though Intel has said that it will continue to rely on TSMC, its new 18A process, which Panther Lake is built on, is a bid to return to making its best offerings in-house. The technology contains two new features that Intel says are breakthroughs for the industry.
The first relates to transistors, the microscopic switches that give semiconductors their function. Modern chips cram tens of billions of transistors into a small area. In order to make chips more efficient and use less energy, the ability to switch these transistors on and off becomes critical.
The 18A products will be the first to have transistors made with so-called gate-all-around technology, a technique that allows finer control over this process, Intel said. That will pave the way for chips with more transistors, and the ability to handle growing amounts of data, that consume less power. BLOOMBERG
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