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It was more like the US government demanded advanced chip production in the US as a milestone, but Intel already had already previously decided to ramp Intel 4/3 in Ireland first. The team and tools were there. This disqualified Intel from the government subsidy.
Since the Irish ramp was before the EU started giving funding for chips, they got no money from there either.
The US government should have considered this. Unlike TSMC, Intel does process development in the US. In fact it is the only company doing so. I am purposely ignoring IBM here since they produce nothing with it.
Pat cancelled the German, Israeli, and Polish fabs before any construction started. So you can't claim much money was lost there. If there is any millstone it is the Ohio fab.
There was no stock buy back under Gelsinger...
And he did build fabs just was not able to fill them... Cause surprise your predecessor had already planned everything at TSMC and you can't shift it back instantly.
That very well could be the reason. But we have already started seeing perf leaks like we saw prior to LNL EEP launch between TechTour (June 2024) & product launch (September 2024). Also we are seeing Panther lake based laptops being showcased for public.
So I think If they wanted, they could have done limited volume launch for this holiday season with EEP (probably not very good margin wise as volume is low). But head count reductions must have eaten into the device driver readiness and other supporting stuff for a good launch etc. Again just my speculation.
so that looks like a very expensive processor.
Product is not mature enough for multiple sku launch. one sku to start is a great idea. I believe this was the plan since beginning of the year.
20A/18A loadings are 1/4 the amount Pat planned for in 2021 after he shifted the roadmap. That is the reason for fab cancellation. No one at Intel other than Pat thought they would fill the fabs. the balance sheet got too out of hand and it needed to be stopped. Intel built one of 6+ fabs planned and it is ramping slowly, not at max ramp speed. lets see how that goes.
