At its Tech Tour 2025, Intel provided a first glimpse of its next-generation E-core server processor, the Xeon 6+ (codenamed Clearwater Forest), which is slated for launch in the first half of 2026. Billed as the most efficient server processor the company has ever developed, it will be built on the advanced Intel 18A manufacturing process. The new chip is designed for hyperscale data centers, cloud providers, and telcos, featuring up to 288 E-cores and a 17% improvement in Instructions Per Cycle (IPC) over its predecessor, Sierra Forest. In a related announcement, Intel also revealed a new data center GPU specifically aimed at the artificial intelligence (AI) inference market, signaling a strategic refocus after challenges in the AI training sector. However, this new AI GPU will not begin sampling to customers until the second half of 2026. While no specific market reaction to these announcements was detailed, Intel's stock has seen a significant surge in the preceding months, driven by large investments from the U.S. government and Nvidia.