Intel says it's happy to make the very Arm chips that threaten its x86 hegemony
«If Arm emerges, I want to be the foundry.» So says Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger when asked at his post-keynote Q&A at the Computex show whether Arm chips are taking over and eating into Intel's market share of x86 chips for PCs.
Actually, Gelsinger gave two answers. First, he argued that Intel's x86 product line up is super strong.
«This is not the first Windows on Arm announcement, right? And the x86 market share has remained very hot, you need to have a reason to change. So, if you believe what I showed on stage today, literally the best CPU, the best graphics, the best NPU and very compelling battery life—why would you change,» Gelsinger said.
But he also hedged his and Intel's bets. «That said, if Arm emerges, I want to be the foundry,» he explained. «We don't say that cavalierly. We mean it. The partnership that Intel has forged with Arm is dramatically more powerful and beneficial for both companies than I could have even imagined when I took this job. We're seeing a lot of momentum for Arm as a foundry partner for Intel, as well.»
Exactly what should we make of all this? For starters, there is a compelling reason to change to Arm, and that's battery life. As we reported yesterday, Dell says the shift to the Arm-powered Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chip lifts the battery life of its XPS 13 laptop with an Intel Meteor Lake chip from 18 hours to 27 hours. That is the very definition of compelling.
Of course, Intel says its upcoming Lunar Lake mobile CPU improves battery life. But it's not out yet and at best will be months behind the X Elite, which will be available to buy in laptops within a few weeks.
Moreover, it's notable that Gelsinger claims Intel has the best CPU, GPU and NPU when talking about Lunar Lake and its Panther Lake follow-up, but wasn't willing to claim it has the best battery life. For Lunar Lake to match what Dell is claiming for the X Elite Arm chip in terms of battery life would mean very likely by far the biggest leap in battery life ever from
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