Intel Foundry has been trying to convince the world it belongs in the same conversation as TSMC. The deal makes Fortinet the first named corporate customer for Intel Foundry under CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who took the top job in March 2025. Fortinet producing a security-focused chip on leading-edge silicon puts Intel’s process technology directly into one of the fastest-growing segments of enterprise hardware. Fortinet isn’t Intel Foundry’s only recent winThe Fortinet announcement lands alongside existing momentum from Microsoft, which previously disclosed plans to develop a custom chip design using Intel’s 18A process. Two named clients from two different verticals, cybersecurity and cloud infrastructure, gives Intel Foundry something it has been working to build: a portfolio story.