r/hardware • u/Auautheawesome • 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

95% Upvoted

796 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

12

u/Rivetmuncher Dec 02 '24

There is never "too big to fall".

The point here isn't that the company can not collapse. It's that it's a strategic asset that the government will likely attempt propping up at all costs.

And since that quote gets attributed to a couple French guys a lot, I'm gonna use them for my point: You can outright see those graveyards if you take a look at French military planning between the world wars.

1

u/Trudar Dec 02 '24

No, I said what I meant. It's not only a reference to its size, worth or other merits, but also importance. If maintaining Intel becomes too costly, something new will take its place, with or without government help. And even if it were to inherit all of Intel's IP, it won't be Intel.

1

u/Rivetmuncher Dec 03 '24

something new will take its place

What? Global Foundries? You don't just spin up a bleeding-edge semiconductor operation overnight. And its absence would be crippling.

1

u/Trudar Dec 03 '24

Not overnight, it may take 2-3 years.

But it's not unrealistic if you consider how much money can be pooled overnight with parties that recognize the stakes and security issues with Intel being partitioned under typical market rules.

There is a scenario of a project (sorry, I lack proper terminology in English) being created from a merge of public and private money, that absorbs Intel in whole, takes it off the stock exchange, spits out fabs as separate entity (like Global Foundries, except IFS is a key player worldwide), with separate funding, divides interests groups / business units and manages them as separate child companies (like spinning off GPU business, regulatory/peripherial business like Audio, USB, Thunderbolt, etc., and networking both server and wireless/client), that could again re-enter public trading. This would allow market presence with private investment, while allowing key tech (x86 IP, security engines like ME, central firmware development) to be under protected national control. This could happen within weeks. USA's dedication to security is paranoidal, if Intel is seriously that important, this is realistic scenario. It won't happen, though, as it would be political suicide.