“We wanted to focus on those three things… not always done by our competitors when they put out products” – I talked to Intel about its plans for 2026, Panther Lake, and beyond

Attendees at the Intel Corp. pavilion at MWC Barcelona 2026 in Barcelona, Spain.

Intel entered 2026 on the back foot — not something I'd have previously expected to write about one of the most dominant companies in computing. Apple, having dropped Intel as a hardware partner for its Macs was getting acclaim for its Arm-based M-series chips, while Intel's old rival AMD had a string of hits that allowed it to eat away at Intel's commanding market lead when it comes to processors.

So, 2026 is an incredibly important year for Intel, and with the Core Ultra Series 3 “Panther Lake” launch back in January at CES 2026, the company appeared to come out swinging.