Intel says Moore's Law is still alive and well. Nvidia says it's ended.

Two of the astir important American semiconductor companies disagree astir the gait of spot advancements and whether Moore's Law inactive applies.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said connected Tuesday astatine a institution motorboat lawsuit that Moore's Law, a regularisation of thumb from Intel's laminitis dating backmost to the 1960s, is "alive and well." The theory, posited by Gordon Moore, implies that chips volition proceed to get faster and cheaper astatine a predictable rate.

Nvidia, which is present astir 3 times much invaluable than Intel, is preaching a precise antithetic message. Co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang said past week that Moore's Law has ended.

"The method of utilizing brute unit transistors and the advances of Moore's instrumentality has mostly ran its course," Huang told investors aft unveiling caller products.

The divergence underscores the stark opposition betwixt Intel and different American semiconductor companies. Intel has committed to proceed manufacturing immoderate of its chips, portion Nvidia and others trust chiefly connected third-party foundries extracurricular of the U.S.

Moore's Law specifically refers to the fig of transistors connected a chip, which Moore said would treble each different year, enhancing processing power. To summation the fig of transistors connected a chip, they person to beryllium made smaller, requiring advancements successful manufacturing technology.

For years, Intel was the person successful semiconductor manufacturing exertion and consistently made chips with the densest transistors successful the world. But successful caller years, Intel has been surpassed by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Samsung, which tin presently nutrient processors with 5-nanometer transistors, portion Intel is inactive stuck connected 10-nanometer and 7-nanometer technologies.

One of Intel's halfway firm goals nether Gelsinger is to get backmost to "performance leadership," which means that its chips request to beryllium arsenic accelerated and businesslike arsenic chips made by rivals astatine third-party foundries. Intel wants to beforehand its manufacturing 5 "nodes," oregon 5 transistor sizes, successful 4 years to drawback up, portion introducing a caller node with smaller transistors historically takes 2 years.

Intel needs Moore's Law to persist, due to the fact that the institution is inactive actively trying to cram much transistors onto a azygous chip.

But size has its limitations, due to the fact that astatine immoderate constituent transistors get truthful tiny that they tally into a physics problem. On Tuesday, Gelsinger called that a "day of reckoning."

Gelsinger said that Intel is moving connected manufacturing advances specified arsenic caller lithography techniques and RibbonFET architecture that would let the institution to proceed to cram much transistors connected each spot adjacent arsenic they get tiny capable to beryllium measured successful angstroms, oregon a portion adjacent to 1 hundred-millionth of a centimeter.

"We aspire from today, astir 100 cardinal transistors connected a azygous package. By the extremity of the decade, a trillion transistors successful a azygous package," Gelsinger said, "We are connected schedule."

Nvidia's newest processors are manufactured by TSMC, which presently has the astir precocious semiconductor manufacturing techniques and is the world's largest chipmaker. Nvidia designs chips but worries little astir the manufacturing side.

Rather than Moore's Law, Nvidia's reply to the engineering situation of creating smaller transistors is simply a conception that Huang calls "accelerated computing." In his vision, aggravated applications similar artificial quality tin tally connected the circumstantial processor that handles them the best, which would beryllium the graphics processor that Nvidia develops. In different words, there's little request for Intel's specialty.

"Going forward, the opportunities for continuing to thrust the terms show curve of Moore's instrumentality has ended," Huang said. "So if you privation to beryllium capable to bash larger-scale computing and to bash it successful a cost-effective way, aft 15 years — astir 20 years — of pursuing accelerated computing, I deliberation that, precise broadly, astir it's accepted contented that accelerated computing is truly the way forward."

Intel announced caller chips and bundle connected Tuesday arsenic it attempts to bounce backmost from years of slipping show and profits. Over the past 5 years, Intel's banal has mislaid 28% of its value, portion Nvidia's banal terms is up implicit 180% (even aft dropping 58% successful 2022).

Intel announced caller Core desktop processors for gamers and consumers with improved performance, a graphics spot for information centers called Ponte Vecchio and bundle called Unison that enables Windows PCs to brace with Android phones and iPhones to nonstop texts and marque calls.

WATCH: CNBC's afloat interrogation with Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger