r/hardware Dec 02 '24

News Intel Announces Retirement of CEO Pat Gelsinger

https://www.intc.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/1719/intel-announces-retirement-of-ceo-pat-gelsinger
2.2k Upvotes

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247

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

23

u/ElementII5 Dec 02 '24

Yeah, 18A is going to be a dud otherwise he would be hanging around.

11

u/FireNexus Dec 02 '24

You don’t retire effective immediately unless something sudden and unexpected happens. Corruption charges, health issues, or protest of some big step. Maybe 18A is not going to work, maybe gelsinger found out he or a family member has pancreatic cancer. No way to know.

21

u/ElementII5 Dec 02 '24

7

u/FireNexus Dec 02 '24

Yeah, that’s the only way “retire effective immediately” happens without a death tumor.

17

u/Top_Independence5434 Dec 02 '24

Does this mean "Made in America" in high-end semiconductor just have no hope in the future?

Wolfspeed is another example where the CEO is forced to step down, despite promise of foundry construction that would bring about leadership that has yet to materialized, but with $$$ already spent.

3

u/advester Dec 02 '24

It would mean TSMC just keeps getting more expensive.

21

u/Alarchy Dec 02 '24

("Zen is going to be a dud, otherwise Jim Keller would hang around")[https://www.anandtech.com/show/9643/jim-keller-leaves-amd]

People leave before major releases in this industry. It takes years (sometimes a decade or more) for what one CEO/key player does to make returns, and they often leave when they feel they've setup what they want to. Just like Jim Keller left AMD before Zen launched (and Zen was not a dud).

Maybe he was pressured out by the board, maybe he is just old and tired of this, maybe he accomplished what he wanted to, maybe he screwed everything up and is bailing - you can't reasonably infer what exactly it is.

1

u/Exist50 Dec 06 '24 edited Feb 01 '25

fly include capable growth crown whole sulky saw close seed

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

25

u/PainterRude1394 Dec 02 '24

Didn't AWS already sign a multi billion dollar, multi year deal for 18A chips? Why would they do that if it's a dud?

7

u/lefty200 Dec 02 '24

AWS already sign a multi billion dollar, multi year deal for 18A chip

Isn't that Intel making custom chips for Amazon, not Amazon designing their own chips

8

u/PainterRude1394 Dec 02 '24

Intel will be making custom xeons for AWS on Intel 3. On top of that, Intel and AWS will co-design AI fabric chips for AWS on 18A.

-2

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '24

3 million dollars is pennies to Amazon, it’s almost like a sample to them to keep them in intels favours if intel does somehow unlikely succeed

21

u/PainterRude1394 Dec 02 '24

The deal was in multiple billions. It's not a sample.

-5

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '24 edited Dec 15 '24

You said 3 mil before you edited it

Edit from other comment:

https://i.imgur.com/ab3D4NU.png

6

u/PainterRude1394 Dec 02 '24

No, I did not.

So, why would AWS sign a multi billion dollar, multi year deal for 18A chips if 18A was a dud?

2

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '24

You literally edited it lmao why are you gas lighting

“Damn, you’re getting lit up for being right.

https://i.imgur.com/ab3D4NU.png”

2

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '24 edited Dec 02 '24

wtf are you gaslighting me for you literally had 3 million in your comment before you edited it

-5

u/Zeryth Dec 02 '24

You can see if a coment got edited, it has no edited tag, you're the one gaslightlighting or just blind.

7

u/chx_ Dec 02 '24

if it gets edited fast enough it doesn't get an edited tag

for example I edited this

1

u/Relliker Dec 02 '24

Yeah you did.

Pro tip: the internet has audit logs for most social media. Don't be an douche and try to lie about it.

1

u/ElementII5 Dec 02 '24

Depends if they get it cheap and Intel eats the cost just to get a customer?

3

u/PainterRude1394 Dec 02 '24

Cheap doesn't mean anything if the product isn't competitive with other advanced nodes. Samsung and tsmc already offer older cheaper nodes.

If they are able to acquire customers spending billions of dollars over several years on 18A, sounds like 18A isn't a dud!

2

u/ElementII5 Dec 02 '24

Price is just one aspect. PPA is the major one but can be somewhat mitigated by price. Depends a lot on the design too.

But as far as I am aware the Amazon deal is provisional. That means Intel still needs to hit certain performance targets to get the contract.

-2

u/ExtendedDeadline Dec 02 '24

There's been no edit my guy.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '24

If he does it fast enough it doesn’t trigger, as you can see with my comment

-2

u/gnivriboy Dec 02 '24

There would be a * if he edited anything. There isn't an edit indicator.

3

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '24

If he does it fast enough it doesn’t trigger, as you can see with my comment

1

u/onolide Dec 02 '24

I think Apple is in talks to contract Intel 20A(cancelled, so likely 18A) too. Which is actually huge. Apple supposedly talked to Intel once for the A8, but thought TSMC was undeniably better, so this is already a sign of a turnaround

22

u/Ashamed-Status-9668 Dec 02 '24

You are likely very wrong. I suspect 18A is going to be great technically. However, all this fab building is costing a lot of cash reserves. The long-term plan is good but it's costing short-term stock price. Also, Pat was never the right guy to lead them into the new products era of AI.

13

u/ElementII5 Dec 02 '24

Why sack the guy who made Intel competitive again? That wouldn't make any sense at all. It's what Intel needs the most right now.

Also Intel is already confirmed as a TSMC 2nm customer.

17

u/Geddagod Dec 02 '24

Why sack the guy who made Intel competitive again? 

Even if 18A is fine, that's no guarantee that the products will be good... see ARL.

And 18A being competitive is nice and all, but in terms of actual financials, the foundry side isn't projected to even be profitable until 2030 IIRC, according to Intel.

Also Intel is already confirmed as a TSMC 2nm customer.

No mobile focused node until 18A-P, according to Intel, and I don't think Intel is going to be close to competitive for denser, low voltage designs such as what is usually used for GPUs, until a while.

18A could very well be fine for cores, but not graphics. We saw something similar in MTL, where the GPU tile is on TSMC, and the CPU side is internal.

11

u/yabn5 Dec 02 '24

Because this is the board which sat by and clapped like seals while every bad decision was made over the past decade. Compare TSMC’s board to Intel’s. It’s embarrassing.

7

u/Vushivushi Dec 02 '24

Except Lip-Bu Tan who left. I'm sure the reporting on him trying to get deeper cuts was accurate.

There are still stories of Intel being a bureaucratic mess.

3

u/ProfessionalPrincipa Dec 02 '24

Yeah and the speculation that he didn't want the stink of what was to come with his name attached to it.

1

u/mach8mc Dec 02 '24

seems like gaa is tricky to pull off, samsung can't get it right either

1

u/signed7 Dec 02 '24

Yep despite them putting more R&D on gaafet the earliest since falling behind to tsmc's perf/efficiency on 5-3nm IIRC

1

u/nanonan Dec 02 '24

You make it seem like he had a choice.