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“I think it is too late for us (to achieve the position of Nvidia in the field of artificial intelligence), Although we have other opportunities in this market (…) twenty or thirty years ago we were leaders. Now the world has changed. We are not among the ten main semiconductor companies. We have to be humble. “These words of Lip-Bu Tan, the Director General of Intel, have been collected by The Oregonian And they are aimed at company employees in a clear attempt to expose what challenges they face.
The challenges with Those who are dealing Intel They exceed the other challenges that he has faced during his more than half a century of history. The leadership that has sustained for decades in the manufacturing industry of integrated circuits is in the hands of The Taiwanese company TSMC Since the mid -2000s. In addition, the stagnation during the last years of the PC market and the slowness with which Intel has participated in the AI industry have placed it in a very compromised position.
In July 2024, the company that at that time led Pat Gelsinger gave a tremendous batacazo in the stock market. Their actions fell 30% in a few days and stabilized in the value they had in 2011. In addition, Intel lost $ 1.6 billion During the second quarter of 2024 and its year -on -year income fell by 1%. These circumstances triggered a crisis that still persists.
Today China is a crucial support for Intel. Dram memories will be tomorrow
Shortly after his arrival It was leaked that lip-bu so He planned to launch a new cut of the Intel template in a clear attempt to reduce their operating expenses, among which personnel costs or marketing expenses are counted. The figure that the company shuffled on this occasion amounted to 20% of its workforce, which in practice implied to dispense with approximately 20,000 workers. These people join the more than 15,000 employees of which Intel has dispensed with during the last months of 2024.
In addition, since June 18 and throughout the month of July they will be forced to leave their jobs Between 8,000 and 10,900 workers Of the factories that this company has spread throughout the planet. However, presumably the most affected plant will be the largest of all: that of Oregon (USA). It is evident that Intel is going through a very difficult stage, although he still has some solid pillars to hold on. One of them is China.
During the fiscal year of 2024, 29% of Intel’s turnover came from China, compared to the 24% of the US
This Asian country is the largest market in which Intel is present. During the fiscal year of 2024 29% of its turnover He came from Chinacompared to 24% of the US. And is that of the 53,100 million dollars that This company entered Last year no less than 15,400 million arrived from China. These figures reflect very clearly how important the country led by Xi Jinping for Intel is. And also how sensitive it is to the geopolitical context.
An important part of the Intel business is supported by the commercialization of relatively old integrated circuits that come from their mature lithography nodes. They are not at all avant -garde semiconductors, but they are still necessary. At the current tension situation between the US and China for this last country These mature integrated circuits are crucial. Chinese chip designers and manufacturers are capable of supply your own market With the mature chips needed by appliances, telecommunications or cars equipment, among other industries.
However, many users, research centers and universities in China continue to use software for X86 and X86-64 processors, so at the moment they cannot do without the CPUs designed to execute it. Intel is currently benefiting from this need, although he is preparing another bet. An a priori accurate bet. And this American company has founded the Japanese investment group SoftBank A company specialized in the design and manufacture of memory chips.
His name is Saimemory and he was born expressly to compete from you to you with SK Hynix, Samsung and Micron Technology. Your plan consists in developing A new type of dram memory Stacked high from some patents prepared by Intel and several Japanese research centers, among which is the University of Tokyo. Intel and Softbank have proposed to complete the development of a prototype and evaluate its viability from a technical point of view by 2027.
Image | Intel
More information | The Oregonian
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