Intel's 18A-P Process Enters Risk Production on Schedule

Marvell Technology and GlobalFoundries have expanded their multi-year agreement to increase production capacity for silicon germanium, or SiGe, at GlobalFoundries' facility in Burlington, Vermont, sending Marvell shares up more than 4% and GlobalFoundries shares up more than 6% on September 17. SiGe is a semiconductor technology used in high-speed optical connections for data centers, allowing devices to operate at higher speeds while using less energy. Robb Johnson, Vice President of Foundry Technology at Marvell, said the expanded collaboration will help ensure the company has the SiGe technology and manufacturing capacity to support the significant growth it expects ahead, and the added capacity will help Marvell meet growing demand for optical networking products including pluggable optical transceivers, near-packaged optics, and co-packaged optics. GlobalFoundries reported $1.786 billion in revenue for the second quarter of 2026, up 6% year over year, with its communications infrastructure and data center segment accounting for about 16% of total revenue and growing 20% sequentially and 62% year over year, and CEO Tim Breen said demand for SiGe remains strong and the company is oversubscribed throughout 2027. Marvell reported record net revenue of $2.739 billion in the second quarter of fiscal 2027, up 37% year over year, and Chairman and CEO Matt Murphy said AI-related bookings remain exceptionally robust as the company raised its revenue outlook for fiscal 2027 and fiscal 2028.

Tigress Financial reiterated its Buy rating on Intel and raised its price target to $145 from $118 on September 15, citing the company's Terafab partnership with companies associated with Elon Musk, including SpaceX, Tesla, and xAI, as a strategic boost to its AI foundry ambitions. The initiative is part of an ambitious semiconductor manufacturing project focused on producing advanced chips for artificial intelligence, robotics, autonomous vehicles, and other compute-intensive applications. Intel said in its second-quarter earnings report that it remains well positioned to pursue sustainable growth through advanced packaging and its wafer foundry network, pointing to momentum in Physical AI and robotics with more than 130 customers testing its Core Ultra Series 3 and Core Series 3 processors for edge AI and robotics applications. The partnership's commercial terms, production volumes, and potential revenue contribution have not been fully disclosed, and the principal risk is that it could strengthen Intel's strategic position in foundry manufacturing without generating meaningful financial returns for several years. According to the Insider Monkey database, 138 hedge funds held stakes in Intel at the end of the second quarter, up from 112 funds in the first quarter, with SoftBank Group Corp. and Coatue Management among the notable institutional holders at approximately $12.14 billion and $1.68 billion, respectively, while roughly 152.25 million Intel shares were sold short as of August 31, representing about 3.02% of the public float.

Jim Cramer said Broadcom CEO Hock Tan told him demand for AI compute infrastructure remains extremely strong and durable, with the custom chip designer holding more orders than almost anybody other than Jensen Huang. Cramer's remarks on CNBC center on whether Broadcom can keep capturing custom AI chip orders, and the third quarter earnings released on September 2nd support the growth narrative, with revenue up 86%, AI semiconductor revenue up 221%, and fiscal year 2026 guidance implying 186% annual AI revenue growth. Tan reaffirmed that Broadcom could pull in $115 billion in annual AI chip sales in 2027 and $230 billion in 2028. Still, the fiscal fourth quarter guide left investors wanting more, with $34.8 billion in revenue missing analyst estimates of $35.03 billion and gross margin guided at 73%, a five point annual drop due to a higher mix of XPU sales. Estimates suggest 71% of Broadcom's fiscal 2027 and 2028 XPU deployment could rely on OpenAI and Anthropic, meaning a huge portion of orders might come from firms now calling for a slowdown in AI development. In Q2, 170 out of the 1,006 funds tracked by Insider Monkey held a stake in Broadcom, a slight drop from 163 out of 1,022 funds in Q1, with notable exits including Third Point and Two Sigma Advisors, and the stock trades at a forward P/E ratio of 18 versus NVIDIA's 23.42.