If you’re wondering what effect Intel’s blockbuster deal with Nvidia will have on its existing product roadmaps, Intel has one message for you: it won’t.
“We’re not discussing specific roadmaps at this time, but the collaboration is complementary to Intel’s roadmap and Intel will continue to have GPU product offerings,” an Intel spokesman told my colleague, Brad Chacos, earlier today. I heard similar messaging from other Intel representatives.
Nvidia’s $5 billion investment in Intel, as well as Nvidia’s plans to supply RTX graphics chiplets to Intel for use in Intel’s CPUs, have two major potential effects: first, it could rewrite Intel’s mobile roadmap for laptop chips, because of the additional capabilities provided by those RTX chiplets. Second, the move threatens Intel’s ongoing development of its Arc graphics cores, including standalone discrete GPUs as well as integrated chips.
We’re still not convinced that Arc’s future will be left unscathed, in part because Intel’s claim that it will “continue” to have GPU product offerings sounds a bit wishy-washy. But Intel sounds much more definitive on the former point, in that the mobile roadmap that you’re familiar with will remain in place.
So far, Intel’s public roadmap calls for Intel’s “Panther Lake” processor to debut this fall, probably shipping in early 2026. Intel’s been talking about that chip for months and months, and there’s no reason to believe those plans will change. Intel has also publicly disclosed Nova Lake, the next-next-generation mobile processor for laptops, which is also due in late 2026 and will probably enter laptops in early 2027. According to a leaked roadmap from a Spanish PC maker, Wildcat Lake might be a 2026 part, too.
What we’ve been told, however, implies that any work that comes out of the Nvidia-Intel partnership will be additive. Essentially, there will be additional products that will be added to the roadmap: premium products, attached to markets like consumer, gaming, creator, and business.
To me, that sounds like Intel could be adding a premium version or option to its established lines. Remember, we don’t know what Panther Lake or Nova Lake will be designed as. We do know, however, that Meteor Lake, the first-generation Core Ultra chip, was designed with a specific GPU tile. One might imagine that Intel could ship a processor with a GPU tile that could either be Intel’s own Arc chip, or a replacement architected by Nvidia. Whether that would be possible or not is unknown — that’s just speculation.
Though Intel and Nvidia have been working on this partnership for about a year, according to Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang, we also don’t expect to get that much information about future products anytime soon. Though, with a rabid technology press corps eager to follow up on the question financial reporters didn’t ask during the Nvidia-Intel press conference, who knows what will emerge?
Read...
