Fortinet named first external customer for Intel 4 node
TL;DR
- Neither official press release names Intel 4 explicitly; The Register and Tom's Hardware both pin SP6 to that node, making independent reporters the primary source for the key technical specification.
- Ken Xie's public framing centers supply chain resilience and diversity, not performance gains, signaling Fortinet is treating US fab access as a geopolitical hedge rather than a throughput play.
- Intel's contribution spans design, packaging, and manufacturing, a broader scope than a typical pure-play foundry wafer contract, suggesting co-investment in SP6's architecture from the start.
Intel Foundry has been searching for a lighthouse external customer it can actually name, and on July 21 it got one. Intel and Fortinet announced a strategic collaboration to co-develop Fortinet's next-generation Security Processor 6, the custom ASIC that sits behind FortiGate firewalls. Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan framed it as a demonstration of "Intel's semiconductor leadership and advanced design, packaging, and manufacturing capabilities," and Fortinet founder and CEO Ken Xie said the expanded relationship would help Fortinet "accelerate and strengthen our ASIC strategy."
The part the Intel press release does not spell out, but that Tom's Hardware reported, is the node: SP6 will be fabricated on Intel 4, the EUV process Intel had so far reserved for its own products. That makes Fortinet the first named external customer for Intel 4, and the first named cybersecurity customer of Intel Foundry. It is the kind of concrete proof point Intel has struggled to produce, and it lands with a company whose entire product story is that a purpose-built ASIC beats commodity x86 or Arm silicon inside a firewall.
Why this matters beyond the two companies: cybersecurity hardware buyers, especially in US federal and critical-infrastructure segments, have been asking for supply chain assurances that TSMC-fabricated competitors cannot easily match. The Register noted that while SP6 "won't use the latest chipmaking tech, it will be built in an American fab by an American company, offering a level of supply chain security." That is a real procurement lever, and Fortinet is the first firewall vendor to pull it publicly.
The honest caveats. Intel 4 is not 18A, and buyers should not assume SP6 will lead the industry on raw performance-per-watt. Intel explicitly declined to say when SP6 will actually ship, telling reporters that availability "will be announced at a later date." No contract value, wafer volume, or packaging arrangement has been disclosed, and it is not yet clear whether other security or networking vendors will follow Fortinet onto Intel 4.
What is worth watching is whether this becomes a template. If Lip-Bu Tan can turn one named cybersecurity anchor into two or three across networking silicon over the next year, Intel Foundry stops being a strategy deck and starts being a business.
What others are reporting
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CNBC Read →
Frames the win explicitly as Lip-Bu Tan's first named external foundry customer, centering the CEO credibility and turnaround narrative absent from the joint press release.
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The Register Read →
Adds $3B US secure enclave funding, 9.9% govt equity in Intel, and Intel DARPA HIVE heritage as context, framing SP6 as entering a government procurement ecosystem from day one.
While SP6 won't use the latest chipmaking tech, it will be built in an American fab by an American company, offering a level of supply chain security that remains difficult to find.
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Tom's Hardware Read →
First coverage to explicitly name Intel 4 as the production node and places SP6 in the lineage of SP5's 7nm Arm-based architecture, giving technical readers a generational baseline.
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Fortinet Newsroom Read →
Fortinet's own statement foregrounds supply chain resilience and diversity over performance, confirming that risk reduction, not throughput, is the company's primary stated rationale.
This expanded relationship with Intel will leverage its unique combination of advanced semiconductor technology, manufacturing expertise, and global supply chain capabilities.
Originally reported by newsroom.intel.com
Read the original article →Original headline: Intel and Fortinet Co-Develop Security Processor 6 on Intel 4, Fortinet First Named External Customer for the Node