In its quarterly earnings call, Intel revealed that it’ll have to adjust its future product lineup. The company further said its 7nm (nanometers) processors will be six months behind schedule. This means they won’t be ready until the end of 2022 or even the first half of 2023.

The yield of its 7nm process is now 12 months behind schedule. In turn, Intel said it’s “accelerating its transition to 10nm products” in 2020, due to an increase in demand.

What’s even more surprising is, Intel is considering contingencies that could see its chips fabricated by third parties if it can’t get its own foundries. Rival AMD is already making 7nm chips and this is exerting further pressure on Intel to progress. Apple and Qualcomm are leveraging 7nm technology for a couple of years now.

7nm chips are more efficient and best suitable for portable gadgets like laptops and smartphones. The delay could put Intel in serious danger because Arm has managed to attract Apple as well. The giant shall be shifting its Mac lineup to an Arm-based architecture within two years, ditching Intel’s decades of partnership.

Intel is a very experienced player and designs as well as produces its own chipsets. On the other hand, companies like TSMC have mastered the production and make chips for other companies under a contract.

Intel’s current best offering, popularly called 10nm in the industry, was ideally scheduled to appear in 2017. But it’s making high-volume sales now. Thankfully not everything is going south for the chipmaker and its Tiger Lake CPUs are still on track for launch later this year. Its first 10nm Alder Lake-based desktop and server CPUs will be ready by the second half of 2021.