Posted on 08/01/2024 6:08:47 PM PDT by CFW
Being a vice president.
Interesting, thanks for that info. I will be in the market for a replacement computer in the next few months, obviously I will now go AMD.
lol, [redacted]
LOL, “non-essential work.”
They are getting beaten because they are not making the best chips.
Getting rid of bloat can motivate folks.
I know, right? Obviously what they ARE making is not getting it done. I would think dumping free cash into R&D might be a good idea.
I work in IT for a multi billion dollar corporation that is just as woke as Intel and very bloated in terms of redundant or unecessary managers and Vice presidents that I have no idea what they do. I think some of them come up with new initiatives or directives that are ultimately counterproductive just to justify their jobs. They also have staff that oversee “Employee Resource Groups”. They have names like Black Network alliance, Asians in Action, etc. I have had to attend online a seminar to cause me to understand how inherently racist I am as a white male even though white males are the only ones not represented in the ERG’s. I hope some of these types are soon shown the door.
Agreed. I just hope the R&D people are not DEI hires!
Also, the failure of Optane was probably a dead end of biblical proportions. I was watching a video about that just yesterday.
Actually a very bad idea!
When companies start reducing R&D, pretty soon, they have nothing to sell!
Especially in the leading edge technology industry.
Maybe Intel is trying to get to the trailing edge technology business? There are money to be made in manufacturing obsolete chips.
Clear the roles to hire Indian migrants for a fourth the pay.
AI?
I don’t know, but why would they be allowing non essential work in the first place?
Forty Year Annual Chart (1985-2024)
Check out the HUGE crash in year 2000 (long red line in chart center) - the infamous Dot Com Catastrophe.
Also, check out the CLASSIC "Cup and Handle" chart pattern.
For technical stock analysts, a Cup and Handle is very bullish.
Time will tell.
I am not in the action any more, but here is my general understanding of the situation. according to some (including many amd fans), historically over the last few years through to the present, intel chips run hot— too hot. hot chips mean expensive power is dissipated as waste heat. intel has been slow or unable to bring its next generation chips out. the next generation intel chips have been delayed quarter after quarter, dragging down profits, reducing customer goodwill and future sales. meanwhile amd processors fill the marketing/sales gap with cooler running, faster processors.
as intel and its product pipeline began to fall behind a few years ago, this became very much of a concern to stockholders. The relatively new CEO, Gelsinger, needed to find a solution. He charted a path that involved Intel changing from a CPU chip company to a silicon chip fabricator. This was risky because Intel did not have much fabrication experience and also because Intel would be in direct competition with TSMC which is a tall order to fill. To bridge the anticipated revenue gap, Intel would accept a hail mary pass from the Biden administration in the form of $8.3B to develop new semiconductor chip fabrication plants in places such as Arizona and Ohio. The CHIPS act took the political edge off of an earlier trump scheme to encourage and subsidize TSMC to build a chip fabrication plant in Arizona.
with the CHIPS act came certain new federal government mandated requirements. Many of these requirements are generally related to DEI. That is, a certain percentage of all CHIPS funded jobs must reflect federally mandated DEI goals. However, the DEI goals add to the obstacles already in place which restrict future competitiveness with TSMC facilities, particularly TSMC facilities in Hsinchu, Taiwan. TSMC’s most advance fabrication facilities and technology remains in Taiwan, for two main reasons. First, TSMC cannot find workers in USA who are sufficiently educated and who work hard enough to work at the Phoenix TSMC facility. Second, TSMC corporate work ethic is confucian/merit based, which conflicts with new CHIPS/DEI non-merit-based goals. The result is that companies that accept CHIPS subsidies which involve conforming to CHIPS/DEI cannot produce at the TSMC quality level and delivery timeframe. Taiwan TSMC is likely to continue its dominance in the industry, making the CHIPS funded work of competitors such as Intel futile for the purposes of making any profits in the next few years. (Intel and USA workers are poorly regarded by people in Taiwan. The CHIPS act is seen by Taiwan as USA’s attempt to help Intel with subsidies at TSMC’s expense to compensate for USA’s and Intel’s lack of competitiveness and worker laziness. BTW TSMC also has a bad reputation in Taiwan for underpaying and overworking its employees. As soon as Taiwan lifted its COVID travel restrictions, TSMC subcontractor travelers from Taiwan stampeded into Phoenix.)
Adding to this the fact that semiconductor fabrication facilities typically take 4-5 years to build before they can come online and start producing anything.
meanwhile, the hardware trend is towards GPUs. graphics and now AI uses GPUs. Intel is far behind Nvidia and AMD in GPUs, graphics and AI. This just adds to the competitive pressure that Intel is already feeling without those considerations.
In the future, at least two large computer manfacturing companies may be working to combine RISC (ARM, RISC-V, PPC, etc) CPU processors with GPUs, putting more pressure on (CISC based) Intel CPU sales (one is Nvidia).
As Intel ramps up its semiconductor fabrication efforts, this costs money. perhaps it is not making profits sufficient to support both its current CPU line workforce and its current semiconductor fabrication workforce (even with CHIPS subsidies). Thus perhaps it needs to make the decision which workforce to sacrifice to remain in business. Gelsinger has already committed to the future defined as semiconductor fabrication. This may be an indication that Gelsinger intends to lay off part or all of its current CPU workforce, as “non-essential” to Intel’s future under Gelsinger’s long term plan to return Intel to profitability.
Intel stock has steadily declined from a high of $60 in 2021 to $29 today.
Side note, an interesting RISC versus CISC discussion:
Great details—thanks.
the first Phoenix TSMC facility will not produce state of the art chips that are produced in Hsinchu TSMC facilities. It will produce 4nm chips starting in 2025. it will produce 2nm chips starting in 2028.
I could not quickly find out the corresponding Intel New Albany spec (maybe someone else reading this knows and can help out). It seems to be scheduled to open in 2025 but there also seems to be some uncertainty as to whether or not it will make that milestone.
Along with a ton of lies about how great the economy was when Biden was in office.
I thought Biden said his CHIPS Act would save chipmaking in America and lead to a new explosion in production? All they've done is give tax breaks to foreign manufacturers to locate factories here.
we have the govt class, and the lower middle class....
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