Re: Wow
Intel is 3 years late on 10nm now. It looks like it may be 4 years late if it isn't fixed by mid 2019 - it's clear from the CEO's comments that there is little confidence that they can fix the yield issues easily, even though he claims they understand it. This is very similar to how Intel gained that 3 year lead in the first place - when everyone else got stuck at 28nm for a couple more years than they would have hoped for.
Their statements already clarified that they have to do 10nm before 7nm, because of sunk costs and their fab upgrade methodology. Going to 7nm would just introduce even more risk, if they cannot multi-pattern 10nm reliably still, as 7nm requires even more of that.
Intel have historically used their fab advantage to push their CPU clocks higher than the competition (or lower power consumption), whilst having good [CPU] designs. This is evidently no longer the situation. In the future they may make up lost ground, but right now it looks like they will be behind in volume for a year (versus TSMC) and likely come in behind Samsung and GlobalFoundries as well. Also note that gate and interconnect width is not everything there is to a process - Intel use simple 1D routing that costs density even though the individual transistors are very nice, and there are other aspects as well.
TSMC's 7nm looks very strong by the way, there is no guarantee that Intel's 10nm is going to equal it, never mind beat it.