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Fluffy software drives demand for fancy hardware. Intel valuation wouldn’t be where it is without growing software market.

• baybal2 6y ago
  > Fluffy software drives demand for fancy hardware. Fluffy hardware drives demand for fancy semiconductors. Intel valuation wouldn’t be where it is without... eh, what? And this is where the skeleton in the closet is. For a major silicon vendor, it becomes more, and more scary to not simply get on the wrong side with chip manufacturer, but even just missing on the next best deal possible. Companies that actually make all those chips don't matter as much when you are a 3rd-4th-5th tier company in your niche, and they don't care much about you. But the moment you become a bigger fish, your stakes become much, much higher. If a popular part (like a cellphone SOC) vendor gets a 10% worse fab deal than its competitor, that part vendor is likely on the way out. In fact, it's a long going "conspiracy theory" in the industry that chip makers keep playing their biggest clients against each other to prevent any of them getting too much negotiating power.