Intel Foundry conquers Fortinet: the Security Processor 6 will be made with Intel 4 process
Intel has announced a new strategic collaboration with Fortinet for the development of the Fortinet Security Processor 6 (SP6), the next proprietary ASIC intended for the FortiGate firewall family. This agreement marks a significant milestone for Intel Foundry: Fortinet becomes the first officially announced external customer to use the Intel 4 manufacturing process, a lithography node with EUV technology that has so far been employed exclusively for internal products from the Santa Clara company.
The agreement expands an existing collaboration between the two companies and combines Fortinet's expertise in the design of security-focused processors with Intel's capabilities in semiconductor design, advanced packaging, and manufacturing. According to the announcement, the goal is to accelerate the development of the new SP6 while simultaneously improving the resilience and diversification of the global supply chain.
While not going into technical details of the project, Intel indicated that the new processor will leverage its experience in the design of disaggregated semiconductors and advanced packaging technologies, tailored for both AI-enabled applications and devices where cost containment is a determining factor. These indications lead to speculation about an architecture based on chiplets, contrasting with the current SP5, a monolithic 7-nanometer SoC based on Arm architecture introduced by Fortinet in 2023 for entry-level and mainstream FortiGate firewalls.
The companies did not communicate a timeline for the start of production of the Security Processor 6 nor details on the final specifications of the chip. The Intel 4 process represents the company's first production technology that introduced EUV lithography. Volume production began in September 2023 at Fab 34 in Ireland, where the compute tiles for the Core Ultra processors based on Meteor Lake are being made. Although Intel 4 had not been included among the production processes marketed for external customers, the company clarified that support for custom ASIC for networking was already part of the roadmap for this technology.
For Intel, the announcement represents another piece in the strategy to revive its foundry business led by CEO Lip-Bu Tan. The company is indeed in search of customers capable of justifying the substantial investments made in production facilities in the United States and other areas of the world. While the most advanced processes intended for the foundry market today are 18A and the future 14A, Intel 4 continues to represent a competitive solution for ASIC aimed at networking and infrastructure.
In recent years, Intel has announced several collaborations in the custom chip sector. Microsoft announced in 2024 its intention to use the 18A process for an AI-dedicated processor, while Amazon has listed Intel as a partner for a proprietary AI chip. More recently, the company revealed it is collaborating with Google on the development of an Infrastructure Processing Unit (IPU), in addition to providing support to Tesla and SpaceX for the Terafab production project. However, the statement by U.S. President Donald Trump claiming that Apple—and also NVIDIA—would choose Intel to produce chips in the United States remains without official confirmation.
From a commercial perspective, Fortinet does not represent a customer with the volumes of large hyperscalers, but occupies a prominent position in the cybersecurity sector. According to IDC, the company held approximately 48% of global firewall appliance shipments at the beginning of 2023 and has been investing in the development of proprietary ASICs for over twenty years as a distinguishing element of its offering. The company has also reiterated in its recent financial results the intention to continue investing in its strategy focused on dedicated processors.