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The trillion dollar question is: Is the board leaning into the usual MBA moves 101 and turn Intel into a "services company" gradually going fabless and milking
by PedroBatista 6y ago
The trillion dollar question is:
Is the board leaning into the usual MBA moves 101 and turn Intel into a "services company" gradually going fabless and milking those sweet patents OR will they put the work boots on and start building an actual tech company with the people who actually can save them on the payroll? cutting on the usual contractors meat grinder and invite the vast armies of middle-management and marketing drones to leave?
- quercusa 6y agoOr are they looking for that one acquisition that (this time!) will fix everything?
- CalChris 6y agoArguably a re-aquisition. Gelsinger was at Intel for 30 years.
- nwsm 6y agoThey didn't mean Gelsinger as the acquisition. The question is what direction Gelsinger will take them, with one option being to acquire some company or companies to bootstrap a new path forward.
- nikanj 6y agoTime to sign your startup in for the lottery. Your company might be the next Pure Digital or Autonomy Corporation!
- mepian 6y agoPat Gelsinger fits the second option better, he has an actual engineering background and worked on some of the most important Intel products early in his career.
- CalChris 6y agoSwan was utterly the first option.
- hodgesrm 6y agoPat Gelsinger didn't do that at VMW, and it seems unlikely he'll do it at Intel. He's an engineer.
- daniel-thompson 6y ago> Is the board leaning into the usual MBA moves 101 Probably not, considering the guy they're throwing out the back door is a finance dude with an MBA and Gelsinger was/is an actual engineer.
- andromeduck 6y agoBK was an engineer too but still managed to pull an Elop.
- UncleOxidant 6y agoBK wasn't even remotely in the same class as Gelsinger engineering-wise.
- andybak 6y agoTangent. I first noticed the phrase "leaning into" a couple of years ago and I'm still not sure I understand how to use it. It's like "flex". I don't hate them (I hate "relatable" and "addicting" but those are apparently acceptable as real words now) but it's odd how they seem to bubble up suddenly out of nowhere. (British by the way - that might have a bearing)
- PedroBatista 6y agoHey don't expect help here, I barely speak my native language correctly let alone English :) I play it by ear and there's a high chance the "leaning into" expression was used incorrectly. I meant to say, the board was more inclined to follow a roadmap than other options.
- moistbar 6y agoIt's like when someone tells you your singing is bad, so you purposely ham it up for laughs. That's leaning into it.
- mattnewton 6y agoHere I think of it as “committing to the direction,” the way you “lean into” a tight turn on a bike or motorcycle. It’s similar to “doubling down” or other euphemisms for committing harder to a course of action. The metaphor works for me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- andybak 6y ago> the way you “lean into” a tight turn on a bike or motorcycle. Ah. It makes a lot more sense now. I never made that connection.
- jacques_chester 6y ago"Lean in" was popularised by Sheryl Sandberg. It's popular with management types and wildly unpopular with folks who feel that "just work harder" coming from an actual billionaire is a bit patronising.
- nelson_muntz69 6y ago
- gscott 6y agoAll of the other fabs are so busy they can't handle Intel's chip production plus Intel's technology is wound around their own labs. Switching wouldn't be easy and might end up being a failure and taking the company with it.
- totalZero 6y agoThe argument I've seen for outsourcing is that everyone uses machines from ASML et al anyway, so retooling to run a different company's silicon may not be as impossible as it seems. I think there's an issue with helping Intel temporarily, because if you're TSMC you'd rather use your capacity to serve long-term partners rather than helping Intel bridge the gap to 7nm only to get dropped a couple of years from now when they get their chips in order.