Intel belicht CPU tekort problemen

Intel CFO en interim-CEO Bob Swan (foto) heeft de CPU tekort problemen zelf in een open brief beschreven en ook plannen bekend gemaakt wat er aan te doen.

Er is sprake van een aanzienlijk tekort aan Intel-CPU's. Vooral de capaciteit voor 14-nm-chips is naar verluidt schaars. Intel heeft niet langer de productiecapaciteit om bepaalde chips van 14 nanometer-schaal in eigen fabrieken te produceren. In plaats daarvan moet de fabrikant een deel van de productie uitbesteden aan zijn concurrent TSMC, zo meldde Digitimes eerder.

Swan spreekt over het verrassende rendement op de groei van de pc-markt dat de nodige druk heeft gelegd op de productie van CPU's van het bedrijf. "We geven prioriteit aan de productie van Intel Xeon- en Intel Core-processors, zodat we gezamenlijk de high-performance segmenten van de markt kunnen bedienen," aldus Swan. "Dat gezegd zijnde, het aanbod is ongetwijfeld krap, vooral op het instapniveau van de pc-markt."

Intel wil zijn bestaande capaciteiten voornamelijk gebruiken voor de fabricage van processors en chipsets voor serversystemen. Bob Venero, CEO van Future Tech Enterprise, meldt dat OEM's grote bevoorradingsproblemen hebben. Enterprise-klanten moeten nu tot 120 dagen wachten op hun notebooks, aldus Venero.

De PC business verwacht dat het tekort negatieve gevolgen heeft voor het laatste deel van dit jaar naarmate de pc-vraag toeneemt. Acer CEO Jason Chen verwacht een sterkere vraag naar PC's in de tweede helft van het jaar en zegt dat het tekort aan 14-nm cpu's een uitdaging is.

Lees de brief van Bob Swan hieronder (Engels):

An Open Letter from Bob Swan, Intel CFO and Interim CEO

To our customers and partners,

The first half of this year showed remarkable growth for our industry. I want to take a moment to recap where we’ve been, offer our sincere thanks and acknowledge the work underway to support you with performance-leading Intel products to help you innovate.

First, the situation … The continued explosion of data and the need to process, store, analyze and share it is driving industry innovation and incredible demand for compute performance in the cloud, the network and the enterprise. In fact, our data-centric businesses grew 25 percent through June, and cloud revenue grew a whopping 43 percent in the first six months. The performance of our PC-centric business has been even more surprising. Together as an industry, our products are convincing buyers it’s time to upgrade to a new PC. For example, second-quarter PC shipments grew globally for the first time in six years, according to Gartner. We now expect modest growth in the PC total addressable market (TAM) this year for the first time since 2011, driven by strong demand for gaming as well as commercial systems – a segment where you and your customers trust and count on Intel.

We are thrilled that in an increasingly competitive market, you keep choosing Intel. Thank you.

Now for the challenge… The surprising return to PC TAM growth has put pressure on our factory network. We’re prioritizing the production of Intel® Xeon® and Intel® Core™ processors so that collectively we can serve the high-performance segments of the market. That said, supply is undoubtedly tight, particularly at the entry-level of the PC market. We continue to believe we will have at least the supply to meet the full-year revenue outlook we announced in July, which was $4.5 billion higher than our January expectations.

To address this challenge, we’re taking the following actions:

• We are investing a record $15 billion in capital expenditures in 2018, up approximately $1 billion from the beginning of the year. We’re putting that $1 billion into our 14nm manufacturing sites in Oregon, Arizona, Ireland and Israel. This capital along with other efficiencies is increasing our supply to respond to your increased demand.
• We’re making progress with 10nm. Yields are improving and we continue to expect volume production in 2019.
• We are taking a customer-first approach. We’re working with your teams to align demand with available supply. You can expect us to stay close, listen, partner and keep you informed.

The actions we are taking have put us on a path of continuous improvement. At the end of the day, we want to help you make great products and deliver strong business results. Many of you have been longtime Intel customers and partners, and you have seen us at our best when we are solving problems.

Sincerely,

Bob Swan
Intel Corporation CFO and Interim CEO