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Intel
is fighting back against the growing consensus view that manufacturing delays have caused the 52-year old chip maker to fall behind rivals such as
Advanced Micro Devices.

Over the course of nearly three hours, Intel (ticker: INTC) engineers from several company divisions talked in depth about several lines of semiconductors it has in the works, discussed its coming computer and graphics-processing units, and revealed details about next month’s release of Tiger Lake laptop processors. It also discussed a new server chip.

Markets largely shrugged off the news. The stock was down 0.4% to $48.99 near midday on Thursday. The
PHLX Semiconductor
index fell 0.4%.

Intel stock has been under pressure since at least 2019, as the company has struggled to manufacture enough chips and hit its own targets for smaller transistor sizes—critical to boosting the performance of its microprocessors. Last year, Intel said it would develop capacity to produce seven-nanometer chips by 2021, but disclosed in July that its next-generation fabrication process wouldn’t be ready until at least 2022.

Shares of Intel have dropped 19% since the July news as investors have reordered their view of the semiconductor market, having lost some faith in the competitive advantage Intel has gained from both designing and manufacturing its chips.

Given its troubles with seven-nanometer manufacturing, the company has resorted to other methods to boost the performance of its microprocessors. Intel said Thursday that it had developed a new method for making transistors, called SuperFin.

Intel’s chief architect Raja Koduri said in a blog post Thursday that the transistor-technology improvements will deliver performance equivalent to moving to a smaller transistor size without actually making the switch. Intel has previously said it can achieve transistor density with its 10-nanometer process that is roughly what its rivals have accomplished with seven-nanometer fabrication techniques. During its presentation Thursday, Intel said the manufacturing process performance gain from SuperFin is roughly 15% to 20%.

Intel’s troubles have left an opening for rivals such as AMD (AMD), which doesn’t make its own chips, and
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
(TSM), whose clients include AMD and rival graphics-chip maker
Nvidia
(NVDA).

Intel stock has dropped 17% this year, as the
S&P 500
index advanced 5.9%. The PHLX has gained 20% this year.

Write to Max A. Cherney at max.cherney@barrons.com