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As someone who works in the semiconductor industry, I'm worried that joining an AI hardware company is a risky move that will falter just like General Magic and
by zump 10y ago
As someone who works in the semiconductor industry, I'm worried that joining an AI hardware company is a risky move that will falter just like General Magic and other hyped hardware startups.
- bendbro 10y agoHave any other examples of failed hardware? I love reading about these, most of which I get from r/shittykickstarters, but I'd like to have a rich vein of failed SV startups
- Keyframe 10y agoThinking Machines and Transmeta come first to my mind. I'm foggy on details around Thinking Machines, but I vividly remember hype and lustrous lies/promises media pushed about Transmeta.
- astrodust 10y agoIntel itself was once a risky company to join, as the whole concept of a microprocessor seemed both stupid and crazy at the same time. Their 4004 series calculator controller was a useless toy compared to more serious computer hardware at the time and their 8008 was marginally less toy-like but equally useless for enterprise computing. We're in the 8088 stage of AI right now.
- zump 10y agoGood point. I have a cognitive bias against startups because I think what they're doing isn't complex, but it is fallacious.
- barrkel 10y agoYou shouldn't chase complexity; chase opportunity. For the same opportunity, a non-complex approach will normally be superior to a complex approach.
- ethbro 10y agoAlso, complexity is hard. And even harder to do substantially better than competitors. Maybe I'm biased, but I can count far more company fortunes that were made doing a simple thing (at the right time) than a complex thing.
- duaneb 10y agoThankfully none of the major players are startups.
- zump 10y agoNot after Nervana got scooped up.
- siberianbear 10y agoNvidia is heavily pushing AI right now, and it could be their biggest market in the future. But they're not a startup: Nvidia is valued at $50B. Their core market is selling high-end graphics cards for hard-core gamers. Even if their AI business failed completely tomorrow, it's still a viable company.
- corin_ 10y agoWorth noting that while gaming may be the biggest part of their business, it only accounts for ~50-55% of their revenue.