Despite a long list of issues plaguing chip giant Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), the company has made meaningful progress catching up to TSMC in semiconductor manufacturing. Intel was stuck on its heavily delayed 10 nanometer (nm) process for a long time,

Of course, 18A is the final part of Intel's bold "five nodes in four years" plan (also known as 5N4Y), which kicked off with Intel 7, then went to Intel 4 as used in the Meteor Lake mobile CPU, followed by Intel 3, Intel 20A and finally Intel 18A.

Intel says its cutting-edge 18A process node is 'now ready' and that tape-out begins in 1H 2025, ready to compete with semiconductor leader TSMC.

Intel is emphasizing that its 18A chip production will occur in North America as President Trump prepares to tariff foreign-made semiconductors.