Holy shit balls is Intel (INTC) Fucked?

[Dahobbs 17812]

26 minutes ago, Captainant said:

I've been hearing scuttlebutt that the new Intel mobile chips will have "ARM-like efficiency" so maybe their big bet on their own fabs will pay off yet

See the article I posted earlier on Intel's presentation of Lunar Lake. If there claims are accurate, it appears they are targeting Apple M3 in terms of performance efficiency, at least at the operating range for the thin and light devices these chips would be used in. It also appears to be a really big jump in GPU performance, allegedly surpassing AMD's latest and greatest integrated efforts.  

Edited September 4 by Dahobbs

[immamac 43570]

The compute tiles are TSMC not intel. 

[Dahobbs 17812]

9 minutes ago, immamac said:

The compute tiles are TSMC not intel. 

Yeah, I mentioned that earlier. I see that is something that has been known for a couple of months, but I missed it when it came out. 

[52-80 19281]

Rumors of Intel getting kicked out of the DJIA.  That would hurt it even further due to outflows from index and fund investing. It and Boeing are the 2 absolute dogs on the list in terms of financial performance but also stock and consumer sentiment.

[hornbri 1467]

Stock up 7% on news of a deal with Amazon. 

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/intel-stock-surges-plans-make-ai-chips-amazon-113751080

 

[immamac 43570]

Just now, hornbri said:

Stock up 7% on news of a deal with Amazon. 

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/intel-stock-surges-plans-make-ai-chips-amazon-113751080

 

Among other things. They are splitting the fab and allowing outside investment in the spinco. 

[Dahobbs 17812]

1 hour ago, immamac said:

Among other things. They are splitting the fab and allowing outside investment in the spinco. 

Yeah, a subsidiary that can take in additional investors makes a lot more sense than the rumor of them selling off the fabs entirely. Intel retains control (presumably wouldn't let ownership get deluded below that point), but can bring in fresh investors more easily. It would also allow a separate leadership team to be more laser focused on the foundry business. 

[Wiler77 1586]

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4722537-intel-not-worth-the-90-billion-price-tag-for-qualcomm

Thought this was an interesting article on establishing a valuation for a potential merger with Qualcomm. I don't think there's a chance in he'll of that happening, but interesting nonetheless.

[elfenix 34387]

heard the qualcomm news on marketplace this afternoon and literally said 'wut' out loud.

[Blotto 23709]

Dont know what to think about this news. He went all in on 18A, so to leave this suddenly with no named successor and before the realization (good or bad)of his efforts is a bit odd. Stock is up slightly after the announcement so the market isnt spooked yet. 

Quote

Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) today announced that CEO Pat Gelsinger retired from the company after a distinguished 40-plus-year career and has stepped down from the board of directors, effective Dec. 1, 2024.

Intel has named two senior leaders, David Zinsner and Michelle (MJ) Johnston Holthaus, as interim co-chief executive officers while the board of directors conducts a search for a new CEO. Zinsner is executive vice president and chief financial officer, and Holthaus has been appointed to the newly created position of CEO of Intel Products, a group that encompasses the company’s Client Computing Group (CCG), Data Center and AI Group (DCAI) and Network and Edge Group (NEX). Frank Yeary, independent chair of the board of Intel, will become interim executive chair during the period of transition. Intel Foundry leadership structure remains unchanged.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241202016400/en/Intel-Announces-Retirement-of-CEO-Pat-Gelsinger

[immamac 43570]

Seems like he said fuck you guys I got chips act over the line its not my problem anymore and peaced out. 

No transition. 

[Captainant 27977]

9 minutes ago, immamac said:

Seems like he said fuck you guys I got chips act over the line its not my problem anymore and peaced out. 

No transition. 

He's just an MBA trying to run a complicated chip company! You cant expect him to make long term decisions for the good of the company - HES A SHAREHOLDER GODDAMNIT! They've gotta get paid!

That's why Intel bought back billions in their own shares instead of investing in their process, and had to beg for corporate welfare

Shareholder supremacy tends to rot a company away

Edited 8 hours ago by Captainant

[Wiler77 1586]

Holy shitballs.  Didn't see this one coming.

[immamac 43570]

3 minutes ago, Captainant said:

He's just an MBA trying to run a complicated chip company! You cant expect him to make long term decisions for the good of the company - HES A SHAREHOLDER GODDAMNIT! They've gotta get paid!

That's why Intel bought back billions in their own shares instead of investing in their process, and had to beg for corporate welfare

Shareholder supremacy tends to rot a company away

That's not gelsinger, he was a very well respected engineer and by far the most technical CEO in a long time. It's why the stock got punished. 

[Captainant 27977]

6 minutes ago, immamac said:

That's not gelsinger, he was a very well respected engineer and by far the most technical CEO in a long time. It's why the stock got punished. 

Ah fair enough, he tried to stop the trend of buybacks when he took the helm in 2021 - and he got punished for it. But it's not the technical folks driving the ship at Intel, and it hasn't been for pretty much the whole 21st century 

Edit: and that he's been pushed out effective immediately tells me this was not a planned or coordinated exit. Dude got axed 

Edited 8 hours ago by Captainant

[Blotto 23709]

9 minutes ago, Captainant said:

Ah fair enough, he tried to stop the trend of buybacks when he took the helm in 2021 - and he got punished for it. But it's not the technical folks driving the ship at Intel, and it hasn't been for pretty much the whole 21st century 

Edit: and that he's been pushed out effective immediately tells me this was not a planned or coordinated exit. Dude got axed 

Yeah, he spent too much time at Intel to fuck them over, and a 7:30AM press release that the CEO is "retiring" at the age of 63 is not how Intel would do shit. I suspect we'll hear more in the coming weeks. 

[Wiler77 1586]

17 minutes ago, immamac said:

That's not gelsinger, he was a very well respected engineer and by far the most technical CEO in a long time. It's why the stock got punished. 

Agreed, and he was at Intel when it used to be an engineering company.  It's why I gave him a chance to turn it around albeit I knew it would take time.

This is nuts and I assume details will start to come out at some point.  I hope he's not sick.

[Wiler77 1586]

Looks like this was a good old-fashioned firing.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/12/02/intel-ceo-pat-gelsinger-is-out.html

I have no idea how long the current Intel BOD has been around, but this Yeary guy has been on the board since 2009, so he had a front row seat for the downfall and likely played a role through their incompetent CEO hirings and missed executions of the past.

Spoiler

Intel ousted CEO Pat Gelsinger over the weekend, capping a tumultuous nearly four-year tenure at what was America’s leading semiconductor company before its stock price and market share collapsed.

The company announced Gelsinger’s resignation Monday morning, which a person familiar with the matter said came after a contentious board meeting last week over Gelsinger’s perceived failure to respond to Nvidia’s competitive edge and a lack of confidence in Gelsinger’s turnaround plans.

Intel CFO David Zinsner and Intel products CEO MJ Holthaus were named interim co-CEOs. Longtime board member Frank Yeary will serve as interim executive chair. Shares of Intel were down 2% Monday afternoon.

“We are working to create a leaner, simpler, more agile Intel,” Yeary said. Yeary was a key driver in Gelsinger’s ouster, said the person, who requested anonymity to discuss confidential board proceedings freely. Intel did not immediately return a request for comment on the board meeting.

Yeary, Intel’s longest-serving board member, will now have to preside over yet another CEO search process. Gelsinger, 63, had an illustrious career at Intel, rising to become the company’s first chief technical officer at the turn of the century, before he took a senior role at EMC. Gelsinger returned to the company from VMware, where he was chief executive, to stabilize Intel in 2021, succeeding then-CEO Bob Swan.

“It has been a challenging year for all of us as we have made tough but necessary decisions to position Intel for the current market dynamics,” Gelsinger said in a press release.

The board meeting that led to Gelsinger’s ouster was first reported by Bloomberg.

Gelsinger set out an audacious plan when he arrived in 2021 to transform the languishing company into a chipmaking juggernaut. He sought to achieve parity with the two leading chipmakers, Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. He pursued big buildouts in the U.S. and around the world, a costly endeavor that weighed heavily on Intel’s free cash flow and increased the company’s debt load.

He also wooed government investment, positioning Intel as the single-largest beneficiary of the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act. Government money has begun to flow to Intel in recent weeks and will aid the company’s chip fabs in Arizona and Ohio. Gelsinger’s retirement comes a week after Intel and the CHIPS and Science Act office finalized a $7.86 billion grant.

Gelsinger also moved to position the company as vital to U.S. national security. He won a multibillion-dollar contract with the Department of Defense to build secure chips, and in meetings with analysts and prospective customers stressed that Intel was a trusted partner of the U.S. government.

But all that was not enough to assuage investors, who increasingly began to see Intel’s aggressive spending as a folly.

 

[Captainant 27977]

IMO this board seems like they're mad they missed the AI boat, and they fired Gelsinger because he wasn't able to move mountains and fix Intel's old woes around process stagnation.

They ate the seed stock a decade plus ago when they stopped improving node processes and just did 14nm+++++ to keep R&D costs low so they could continue to fund buybacks and dividends. Things were great, until they weren't. 

 

Now Intel is chasing AMD's innovations and their heavily capitalized fabs are a millstone around their necks