Intel and Fortinet said they will jointly develop Fortinet’s Security Processor 6, the next custom chip planned for FortiGate firewall appliances. The deal matters for Fortinet customers because these ASICs are the hardware path Fortinet uses to push packet inspection, encryption, and other security work off general-purpose CPUs.
It also matters for Intel Foundry, which has been trying to prove that outside chip designers will use its fabs for real products rather than polite slide-deck endorsements. Intel told Tom’s Hardware that SP6 will be manufactured on Intel 4, the company’s EUV process that has so far been used for Intel’s own products. That makes Fortinet the first named external customer for Intel 4, according to Tom’s Hardware, and the first cybersecurity vendor Intel has named as a silicon customer.
The announcement leaves out the part customers and investors usually want most: timing. Intel and Fortinet did not say when SP6 will enter production or appear in FortiGate systems.
What Intel is bringing to the chip
Intel said it will contribute chip design work, advanced packaging, and manufacturing to the SP6 program. The companies described the work as drawing on Intel’s experience with disaggregated semiconductor design and packaging for AI-enabled and cost-sensitive uses.
That wording points toward a chiplet-style design, though neither company explicitly said SP6 will be chiplet-based. If that is where the design lands, it would differ from Fortinet’s current SP5, which Tom’s Hardware described as a monolithic 7nm Arm-based system-on-chip launched in 2023 for entry-level and mid-range FortiGate appliances.
Fortinet founder, chairman, and CEO Ken Xie said in the announcement that the Intel collaboration would help Fortinet “accelerate and strengthen our ASIC strategy.” The company has used its own security processors across parts of the FortiGate line, and SP6 continues a program now in its sixth generation.
Intel 4 gets a named customer
Intel 4 was Intel’s first process node to use extreme ultraviolet lithography. It entered high-volume manufacturing at Fab 34 in Ireland in September 2023, where Intel uses it for the compute tile in Meteor Lake-based Core Ultra processors, according to Tom’s Hardware.
The node was absent from the list of external foundry processes in Intel’s fiscal 2024 annual report. That list included 18A, Intel 3, Intel 7, Intel 16, and a 12nm process co-developed with UMC. Intel said the Fortinet work fits plans it had set out years earlier for Intel 4, including custom networking ASIC support.
The Fortinet announcement arrives against a broader wait-and-see period for Intel’s foundry business. Microsoft agreed in early 2024 to use Intel’s 18A node for an unnamed custom chip, a deal later reported to involve a next-generation Maia AI processor. That agreement also arrived without product details, a specific node variant, or a schedule.
Intel CFO David Zinsner said in March that improved yields were drawing inbound interest in 18A-P from prospective foundry customers. CEO Lip-Bu Tan told CNBC in May that Intel expected foundry commitments in the second half of 2026.
Fortinet is not a consumer-chip trophy customer, but it does ship hardware in volume. IDC ranked Fortinet first in firewall appliances shipped as of early 2023, with a 48% unit share, according to Tom’s Hardware.
Intel and Fortinet did not commit to additional chips beyond SP6. Their announcement described the agreement as an initial step, with more work on chip technology and manufacturing still under discussion.
This story draws on original reporting from Tom's Hardware.
