Intel could do much better if only it had better leadership. I'm just stating my opinion. Purely out of curiosity, what do you think are the biggest mistakes of this leadership?
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I recall being in a B-M when the GM at the time talked about Intel playing hardball over $1 with Apple regarding chips for the iPhone and tablet. He was boasting that Intel held firm and that Jobs would come crawling back in six months. We then had the Board Chairman talk about tablets not being a segment worth pursuing and rudely dismissing any questions on this decision. 160 million tablets shipped last year.
One thing everyone in leadership could do tomorrow — change their attitude from this …
“I’ll prioritize the support and promotion of people that cause benefits to my career”
… to this:
“I’ll prioritize the support and promotion of people that cause benefits to Intel”
Let's face it, the Biggest Mistake "is" working for Intel cause there is absolutely NO leadership.
The biggest mistake is thinking hardware as software... and expecting execution in hardware similar to that of software.
The other biggest mistake is low balling compensation to hardware folks compared to software.
It’s deeper than the current leadership. It’s 15-20 years of mistakes, exacerbated by a disastrous inability to deliver over the last 5 years.
Biggest of all: The fabless strategy was the correct strategy for a semiconductor design firm in the 2010s and beyond. That’s the fundamental error Intel faces. Being vertically integrated was a boon in the 80s and 90s. Now it’s a liability.
Missing the boat on GPUs, mobile, and AI doesn’t help either. That means huge streams of money, cutting edge tech, and good personnel flowing away from Intel and to competitors. Intel is kinda lucky the supply crunch hit when it did, otherwise the competition would have been able to press their advantage even more.
x86 has legitimate competition at all levels of computing. If things keep going the way they are going, we’ll be seeing architectures that emulate x86 faster than the fastest x86 chips run. Or at least “check a box” style porting like Xcode provides. There goes platform lock-in. Even on x86 Intel is bleeding market share.
Intel needs an industry-defining win. Honestly I don’t see anything in the works that would qualify as that even if it comes out perfectly and ahead of schedule. It’s time to stop jumping on the latest fads years too late, and try to develop a vision for the world of 2030. But a company that spends its CEO’s time and energy lobbying for protectionist legislation probably isn’t so much in the visionary mindset. I see upper management focusing on trying to grab bigger pieces of a shrinking pie.
When they advertise they want to protect US technology but in actuality they do not offer deserving candidates the position, then we know for sure the leadership is not really doing the right thing.
ChipsAct will not help in anything but to have these leaders in high positions rake in more money. I have yet to see how chipsact money will help a person at the bottom of chain.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pucOm5StP3s
IDM 2.0 and IFS are big mistakes and will go down as huge strategic inflection point missed.
Doubling down on a old strategy and a missed pivot a decade too late is plain stupid