Fortinet has publicly committed its next-generation Security Processor 6 — the custom silicon that will power the entire FortiGate firewall lineup — to Intel Foundry for design, fabrication and advanced packaging on the Intel 4 process, both companies confirmed on July 21, 2026. Intel disclosed the deal two days ahead of its Q2 2026 earnings and Fortinet's July 30 report, sending Intel shares up 8.6% to $105.45.
First Publicly Named Intel 4 Customer
The announcement makes Fortinet the first company Intel has been willing to name as an external customer for Intel 4, roughly three years after the 7nm-class EUV node entered high-volume production at Intel's Fab 34 in Leixlip, Ireland — primarily to build the compute tile inside Meteor Lake Core Ultra processors. It is also the first foundry win CEO Lip-Bu Tan has attached a customer name to since taking the top job in March 2025.
Disaggregated Design, U.S.-Owned European Fab
Intel and Fortinet described SP6 as using "disaggregated semiconductor design and advanced packaging tailored for both AI-enabled and cost-sensitive applications" — language analysts read as a chiplet-based departure from the monolithic 7nm SP5. For Fortinet, the shift pulls its next flagship security ASIC out of a TSMC-linked contract-manufacturing flow (currently run through Renesas and Toshiba America) and into a U.S.-owned fab on EU soil, aligned with rising supply-provenance requirements from federal and critical-infrastructure buyers.
Fab 34 Utilisation Play, Not An 18A Validation
For Intel, the deal helps fill Fab 34 as Meteor Lake ages out of the company's own product lineup, giving the fab's EUV capacity a paying customer to backfill against the ramp of 18A-based Panther Lake. It follows Intel's April 2026 buyback of Apollo's 49% Fab 34 stake for $14.2 billion, and a July 13 announcement of a €5 billion Leixlip expansion. Analysts were careful to note the win is on Intel 4, not on the more competitive 18A node where Intel just hit 85% yield, and that Intel Foundry's $174 million Q1 2026 external revenue still trails TSMC's $35.9 billion in the same quarter by roughly two hundred to one.
Reporting based on coverage from Tom's Hardware, TechTimes, CNBC, The Register and Intel and Fortinet press releases.