Intel Launches Xeon 6+ on 18A Process and Crescent Island AI GPU at Computex 2026

Intel Newsroom·high signal

On June 1, Intel announced Xeon 6+ (code-named Clearwater Forest), its first data-center CPU on the Intel 18A (1.8nm-class) process, scaling to 288 efficiency cores per socket with 2.5x performance and 45% better perf-per-watt over the prior generation. Intel simultaneously detailed Crescent Island, a 350W air-cooled PCIe AI GPU (Xe 3P architecture) with up to 480GB LPDDR5X targeting agentic inference workloads at low total cost of ownership. Both target the growing demand for AI-optimized data center infrastructure that isn't NVIDIA-locked.