“Intel’s ‘18A’ and ‘Made in America’ positioning primarily resonates with government, defense, and regulated industries where supply chain assurance and data sovereignty are critical,” Rawat said. “For the broader enterprise market, purchasing decisions remain driven more by performance-per-watt, TCO, platform stability, and manageability than by fab location.”
Maciek Gornicki, senior research manager for IDC’s Client Devices Group in Asia/Pacific, agreed. “The product’s ability to support business operations is the much bigger factor,” he said, though noting the 18A node “looks to deliver improvements in performance and efficiency.”
While US chip fabrication could benefit government procurement under Buy American provisions, it’s unlikely to affect tariffs on finished laptops, which are classified based on final assembly location rather than component sourcing.
