Fortinet becomes Intel Foundry's first named external customer on Intel 4

<cite index="2-1,2-2">Intel and Fortinet announced a strategic collaboration to develop Fortinet Security Processor 6 (SP6), combining Fortinet's proprietary security processor expertise with Intel's advanced design, packaging, and manufacturing capabilities</cite>. <cite index="1-3">Fortinet is the first named cybersecurity customer for Intel Foundry and the first external customer on the Intel 4 node</cite>. <cite index="1-2">The chip will be built on Intel 4, which makes Fortinet a first-of-kind foundry customer for the node</cite>.

<cite index="3-1">Fortinet is the first announced corporate customer for Intel's foundry under CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who took over the chipmaker in March 2025</cite>. <cite index="3-4">Intel's biggest confirmed customer for its foundry is itself, while the U.S. government also uses the foundry for defense chips</cite>. <cite index="4-2">Fortinet's hardware business runs at roughly 30% of its $2 billion annual hardware revenue stream, so the deal won't move Intel's foundry materially, even at full production</cite>.

For architects: This validates Intel's strategy of co-designing custom ASICs for cost-sensitive, non-bleeding-edge workloads. Fortinet brings real volume (48% firewall appliance market share, ~six million deployed FortiGates), but SP6 on a 2023 node won't satisfy demands for leading-edge external customers. <cite index="4-3">Intel told investors two prospective customers were evaluating 14A test chips, and an 18A or 14A commitment from a major external customer is still missing</cite>.