August 29, 2025 – During the Deutsche Bank 2025 Technology Conference, Intel’s Chief Financial Officer David Zinsner announced that the company has secured sufficient funding for its chip foundry business in the near – term through two key investment agreements. One is with SoftBank, and the other is with the U.S. government. As a result, Intel won’t need to bring in external investors for its foundry operations in the coming years.
Zinsner revealed that Intel has just received a substantial 5.7billionfromtheU.S.government.Inadditiontothesetwomajordeals,thecompanyhasalsoraisedfundsthroughothermeansrecently.ItsoldaportionofitsstakeinMobileye,generating1 billion, and offloaded a majority stake in Altera, bringing in $3.5 billion.
When it comes to Intel’s foundry business, Zinsner discussed the investment return rate (ROI) of different technology nodes. He stated that from an ROI perspective, the Intel 18A node can still deliver decent results even without external foundry customers. However, for the Intel 14A node, relying solely on internal orders won’t be enough to achieve a satisfactory ROI. This is precisely why Intel mentioned the potential risk of exiting the chip – manufacturing business in its SEC filings. Securing external orders for the Intel 14A node is a crucial opportunity for Intel to expand its foundry business spending and seek external investment for this segment.
Regarding Intel’s product lineup, Zinsner expressed optimism. He said that the upcoming, more comprehensive Nova Lake – S processors will help Intel turn the tide in the high – end mainstream desktop (MSDT) market, where it has been facing challenges. In the data center sector, Intel is striving to catch up with its competitors.
