This is a nonsensical comparison. It lumps together three different kinds of ICs: DRAM, NAND flash, and CPUs. Samsung is in no danger of beating Intel in the

This is a nonsensical comparison. It lumps together three different kinds of ICs: DRAM, NAND flash, and CPUs. Samsung is in no danger of beating Intel in the CPU market any time soon, and Intel long since yielded the DRAM and NAND flash markets. The semiconductor is brutally cyclical. Right now memory is up. Samsung and Intel are both well aware that the wheel will continue to turn, and that the reward for complacency is annihilation. That's why they're both ruthlessly unsentimental about exiting markets in which they can't profit.