The inspiration for this thread was this article talking about innovation traps. The commitment trap and business model trap really reminds me of intel. Let me explain.
Business-model trap:
Intel wants to transform to IDM 2.0 - sort of the factory for their own products and also products from other companies. Intel is investing a lot of money into factories and new staff but I heard they will have lots of problems with procuring enough EUV machines for those factories. Will they be able to sort this problem till they build these factories or will the factories just run o 75% capacity for example? There is also a problem with Intel nodes. Intel needs to fulfill its new roadmap(20A in 2024) to be competitive with TSMC. Will they be able to do it? Or are they just burning money trying to fight a competitor that has a clear edge over them?
Commitment trap:
I am talking mainly about gaming GPUs. Why are they pouring money into this? Alchemist is clearly not competitive and they could've spent that money on researching new nodes or they could've instead focused on fixing the server products development first. This would be a good idea if they had most of their areas under control but this seems like another black hole that is just steering their focus from important problems - bringing sapphire rapids to market, fulfilling their node roadmap.
Will Intel be able to focus with so many things on their plates or will the vision of Pat Gelsinger and their problems in execution lead them further into irrelevance?
Bonus question: What do you think about the new products from Intel? Will they be competitive against Nvidia and AMD?
Business-model trap:
Intel wants to transform to IDM 2.0 - sort of the factory for their own products and also products from other companies. Intel is investing a lot of money into factories and new staff but I heard they will have lots of problems with procuring enough EUV machines for those factories. Will they be able to sort this problem till they build these factories or will the factories just run o 75% capacity for example? There is also a problem with Intel nodes. Intel needs to fulfill its new roadmap(20A in 2024) to be competitive with TSMC. Will they be able to do it? Or are they just burning money trying to fight a competitor that has a clear edge over them?
Commitment trap:
I am talking mainly about gaming GPUs. Why are they pouring money into this? Alchemist is clearly not competitive and they could've spent that money on researching new nodes or they could've instead focused on fixing the server products development first. This would be a good idea if they had most of their areas under control but this seems like another black hole that is just steering their focus from important problems - bringing sapphire rapids to market, fulfilling their node roadmap.
Will Intel be able to focus with so many things on their plates or will the vision of Pat Gelsinger and their problems in execution lead them further into irrelevance?
Bonus question: What do you think about the new products from Intel? Will they be competitive against Nvidia and AMD?