Intel has been making a lot of noise about its upcoming 14A process, and for good reason. It is expected to be one of the biggest tests of whether the company can turn its future chip roadmap into the advantage it needs to regain momentum against AMD.
Now, new information from Commercial Times suggests AMD may already be preparing its answer. The company’s future Zen 7 processors are said to be planned around TSMC’s A14 node, which could let it meet Intel’s 14A push head-on.
What is AMD planning for Zen 7?
This is not about the current Ryzen lineup. AMD’s present Zen 5 CPUs are built on TSMC’s 4nm process, while the next major jump is expected with Zen 6 on TSMC’s N2 node. Zen 7 would come after that, so this is still a few years away, not a near-term upgrade path for anyone shopping for a CPU right now.
Even so, these early details help show what future Ryzen upgrades could eventually look like. TSMC has said its A14-class process is aimed at 2028 volume production, and the report links AMD’s Zen 7 plans to that window. It also claims AMD is evaluating Powertech’s fan-out panel-level packaging (FOPLP). FOPLP is an advanced packaging method that can help fit more complex chiplet designs into a smaller and potentially more cost-efficient package.
On top of that, the rumored Zen 7 CCD could scale to 16 cores for the flagship model, with future 3D V-Cache variants potentially reaching up to 224 MB of L3 cache per CCD. That would make Zen 7 a major chiplet and cache upgrade, assuming these early claims hold.
Why does Intel’s roadmap make this more interesting?
Intel’s future roadmap is the reason AMD’s A14 move becomes more interesting. The current Core Ultra Series 3 mobile CPUs use Intel 18A, and the upcoming Core Ultra 400 series is expected to remain on the same process. Intel’s next major step is 14A.
Previous reports say that Intel has already begun development on 10A and 7A process technologies. CEO Lip-Bu Tan said the 14A process design kit 0.9 is targeted for release to external customers in October. Intel expects 14A risk production in 2028 and volume production in 2029.
AMD’s reported Zen 7 plan fits neatly into that rivalry. If the company moves to TSMC’s A14 process, its future CPUs could go up against Intel’s 14A chips in the same performance and efficiency race. For customers, that is good news. The harder Intel and AMD push each other, the better the next generation of PCs usually gets.
