Intel Drops 288-Core Beast: Xeon 6+ Clearwater Forest Revealed
Intel's first 18A data center chip packs up to 288 efficiency cores, claiming the x86 core count crown.
Intel just pulled the curtain back on its Xeon 6+ Clearwater Forest processors — and the numbers are wild. We're talking up to 288 Darkmont efficiency cores crammed into a single data center CPU. That's the highest core count ever for an x86 chip.
The real story here is the manufacturing tech. Clearwater Forest marks Intel's first data center processors built on its 18A process node. That's a major milestone for a company betting its entire foundry future on proving it can compete at the bleeding edge of chip fabrication.
The chips are slated for a 2026 release. Intel formally introduced the Xeon 6+ lineup this week, targeting hyperscale and cloud workloads where packing maximum efficiency cores per socket translates directly into better performance-per-watt.
The server CPU wars just got significantly more interesting.