Intel Failures: A Cautionary Tale Of Business vs Engineering

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Just like Boeing, once upon a time, Intel was the darling of the engineering world. Both companies were the premier tech companies in their day, but those days are long gone now.

[...] Intel hasn't experienced such speculator public failures, but it is tripping over its own feet a lot lately. As everyone knows, Intel's 13th and 14th Gen processors, particularly the Raptor Lake series, have been failing... a lot.

[...] Today, adding insult to injury, these problems appear most often in its top-of-the-line Core i9-13900K and Core i9-14900K CPUs. When you pay north of $500 or 400 for a single processor, you're not likely to take it kindly when the video flips out. Funny that.

[...] In addition, Intel has been struggling with yields on its new chip families. Now, Intel hopes to catch up with AMD and TSMC by 2026 with its next-generation 2nm CPUs. I hate to tell you this, Intel, but it's not like they'll be sitting around waiting for you.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger referred to this struggle as a death march" back in 2022. I don't think I would have used that phrase, but it appears to be more apt than ever.

Numerous soon-to-be ex-Intel employees doubtlessly would agree with me. Recently, Intel announced it would soon be laying off 16,000 staffers. That's 15 percent of its workforce if you're playing the stock market.

The market wasn't impressed. Between the layoffs, missing its guidance numbers, and chopping back its dividend, Intel's share price is dropping like it's in a, well, death march.

Why is all this happening? I think it's the result of poor management decisions and underinvestment in critical manufacturing technologies. In particular, it was how Intel prioritized business strategies and financial performance over engineering excellence.

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