Big quote: The last few years have not been kind to Intel. The company has seen its fortunes fall as rivals continue to make great strides, both financially and technologically. In a recent interview, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates shared his thoughts on the situation, stating that Intel has “lost its way.”
An interview with Gates by the Associated Press notes how the billionaire has a soft spot for Intel. The publication suggesting that his career might have gone down a different path had Team Blue not created the first commercial microprocessor, the Intel 4004 in 1971. It led to more advanced chips that powered personal computers, resulting in the need for software for these PCs.
While Microsoft has been on the rise since Satya Nadella became CEO in 2014, Intel has endured its most difficult period in decades. There were delays transitioning from the 14nm to 10nm process, followed by the delay of 7nm. Intel has also constantly lost market share to AMD, faced Apple dropping the company in favor of its own silicon, dealt with security vulnerabilities, struggled with Raptor Lake issues, and lost ground to chip rivals. Financial troubles have also hurt the company, culminating in the ousting of CEO Pat Gelsinger last year.
“I am stunned that Intel basically lost its way,” Gates said. He added that Intel co-founder Gordon Moore “always kept Intel at the state of the art. And now they are kind of behind in terms of chip design and they are kind of behind in chip fabrication.”
Nvidia, TSMC, and Qualcomm are all ahead of Intel in various areas of chip manufacturing and design, and catching up isn’t going to be easy, if not impossible.
Gates also highlights how Intel essentially missed the AI chip revolution, though he did have praise for former CEO Pat Gelsinger.
“I thought Pat Gelsinger was very brave to say, ‘No, I am going to fix the design side, I am going to fix the fab side.’ I was hoping for his sake, for the country’s sake that he would be successful. I hope Intel recovers, but it looks pretty tough for them at this stage.”
Related: Intel’s takeover dilemma: A Gordian knot of funding and politics
Intel has also been falling behind AMD in the consumer CPU market. Team Red is dominating the Amazon.com processor sales chart while continuing to do well abroad. Intel’s only solace could be that more Steam survey participants (63%) still use its CPUs.
There have been rumors that Intel could be bought out – Broadcom looked like a potential buyer for a while – but funding the company’s fabs will require tens of billions of dollars and take years to get back on track, making it a less appealing proposition. Given the amount of money the US government has poured into them, shutting down its fabs isn’t an option for Intel.
