According to Tom's Hardware, Intel and Fortinet announced on July 21 that Intel 4 will fabricate Fortinet's new FortiSP6 ASIC — the node's first named external foundry customer. ServeTheHome estimates the deal as part of a roughly $2 billion revenue stream, not a $10 billion/year win.
What did Intel and Fortinet actually announce about FortiSP6?
Intel and Fortinet announced they will work together on the Fortinet Security Processor 6 (SP6), described by ServeTheHome as "a big announcement for a future ASIC" 1. Per Tom's Hardware, the agreement is specific about the manufacturing role: "Intel will design, package, and fabricate Fortinet's sixth-generation Security Processor (SP6) on its Intel 4 node," a deal the companies announced on July 21, making it the node's first named external foundry customer roughly three years after Intel 4 entered production 7.
Details beyond the manufacturing arrangement remain thin. ServeTheHome notes that "we do not have specs for the Fortinet Security Processor 6 (SP6)" at this stage 3, so performance, die size, and packaging specifics are not yet public.
Why is this a shift from how Fortinet has built ASICs before?
Fortinet is not new to designing its own silicon. ServeTheHome points out that "Fortinet designs its own ASICs and has been doing this for years," citing the previously covered FortiSP5 launch and the FortiSOC4, which the outlet has seen inside the Fortinet FortiGate FG-40F and FortiGate FG-60F appliances 2.
What changes with SP6 is the foundry behind it. ServeTheHome writes: "I believe the FortiSP5 was a TSMC 7nm processor, so Intel is gaining a customer that was previously TSMC's" 4 — flagging Fortinet's prior-generation chip as a TSMC-manufactured part, in contrast to SP6's move to Intel 4.
What does the deal mean commercially for Intel Foundry and for Fortinet?
On scale, ServeTheHome cautions against overreading the win. Fortinet's business runs "roughly 70% service, 30% hardware revenue," and that hardware figure covers more than just the security ASIC. The outlet's assessment: "this does not seem like a $10B/year win for Intel's Foundry business. Instead, this seems like winning a component of a portion of a $2B revenue stream" 5.
Even with that scale caveat, ServeTheHome frames the announcement as strategically notable: "it is big news since it is a public win for Intel Foundry and in a segment that tangentially competes with Intel Products" 6 — meaning Fortinet's security-ASIC segment sits adjacent to markets Intel's own product lines also touch.
Why does Intel's account of Intel 4's foundry role keep shifting?
Intel's public messaging on this deal points to continuity. Per Tom's Hardware, Intel told the outlet the agreement reflects "the strategy Intel outlined for Intel 4 several years ago," including support for custom networking ASIC workloads 8.
Tom's Hardware's own review of Intel's historical roadmaps tells a different story. The 2021 roadmap "scoped Intel 4 to two internal products" only 9, and "through 2022, it told engineers and investors that Intel 3, not Intel 4, would be its first process offered to foundry customers" 10.
| Period | What Intel said about Intel 4's foundry role | Source |
|---|
| 2021 | Roadmap scoped Intel 4 to two internal products only | Tom's Hardware 9 |
| Through 2022 | Intel 3, not Intel 4, expected to be the first node offered to foundry customers | Tom's Hardware 10 |
| July 21 (2026) | Intel 4 named its first external foundry customer: Fortinet's SP6, ~3 years after the node entered production | Tom's Hardware 7 |
What this means
Laid side by side, the timeline shows Intel's foundry narrative for Intel 4 moving in a direction its own earlier roadmaps did not point to: a 2021 plan limited to two internal products, a through-2022 expectation that Intel 3 would be the first foundry-facing node, and now, per Tom's Hardware, Intel 4 picking up its first named external customer in Fortinet (E7, E9, E10) — a sequence Intel itself describes as consistent with a strategy "outlined for Intel 4 several years ago" 8. On the customer side, ServeTheHome's numbers cut against reading this as a blockbuster: a deal sized within roughly $2 billion of Fortinet's hardware-linked revenue, not the $10 billion/year figure that would signal a marquee foundry win, even as the same source calls it a public win in a segment that tangentially competes with Intel's own product lines (E5, E6). And the shift from Fortinet's TSMC-built FortiSP5 to an Intel 4-built SP6 4 marks Intel Foundry gaining, in ServeTheHome's words, "a customer that was previously TSMC's" — even though FortiSP6's own specifications are not yet public 3.