5 ms·

Intel Reports First Net Loss in over 30 Years

41 points by chmaynard 4y ago

enduroman 4y ago
This is huge. They used to do anything to report a profit. I was part of the 2016 reduction and we knew it was for them to reduce sg&a. They offered early retirement to many high level (VP+) to get salaries off the books. We were always told Intel would never report a loss.
- gumby 4y ago
  If you’re going to have a loss, or have to pull out all the stops to scrape by, just make it as bad as possible (jam everything bad you can into it). Then you take all the pain at once, and from that point on everything will look better. People will say “look how far they’ve come since that $500MM loss!” At least, that’s the theory. Especially handy right now when congress was debating (now passed) a handout to the industry.
rvz 4y ago
Yes. It really is indeed back to the drawing board for Intel [0] and now they are really losing money. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30603789 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30603789
- skywal_l 4y ago
  I have no corporate financial knowledge so I may out of my depth here but I believe they have made significant investments lately to try to spur up a chip industry outside of China's sphere of influence. Would their bad results be, partly, the result of this?
  - BostonEnginerd 4y ago
    One of the announcements was a reduction in the amount they were spending on building fabs. I’m not sure cutting capex to pay a dividend is a good move.
    - indemnity 4y ago
      Right, so that’s how they’re planning to compete with the likes of TSMC…. By protecting the dividend at all costs and cutting back on core business investment? They’re done and never coming back. Typical American short term thinking.
      - yucky 4y ago
        Or viewed another way, they're seeing the writing on the wall for TSMC when China takes Taiwan. AMD has no fabs so they're basically a chip design firm. Intel with the backing of the US govt will be the only game in town.
rentfree-media 4y ago
It's really amazing that they have managed to miss every trend for so long. Mobile? Nope, don't care, let it go to Qualcomm, Arm, etc. Cloud shift from on-premise hardware? Screw their power and efficiency demands, let them eat cake (buy Xeons).
- distances 4y ago
  This is of course overly simplistic. They absolutely wanted to have mobile too, but didn't manage to execute it. Nokia and surely also other manufacturers were counting on Intel delivering, and had to scramble to re-engineer some flagships in the pipeline to switch to available ARM components when Intel's mobile failure became likely.
999900000999 4y ago
Does anyone else think the future of personal computing is 100% arm? Arm runs cheaper and more efficient. Aside from PC gaming, were AMD has been doing exceptionally well lately, I don't know what Intel's place is to the typical person.
- hulitu 4y ago
  > Does anyone else think the future of personal computing is 100% arm? Citation needed. VIA made power efficient X86 processors.
- suprjami 4y ago
  Jon Masters does: https://twitter.com/jonmasters https://twitter.com/jonmasters
  - ant6n 4y ago
    Who is that guy and what is he saying, is linking to the person relevant?
    - suprjami 4y ago
      If only he had a site with a short bio and a feed of posts on the topic of this thread. Oh well, I guess we'll never know. Just click the link dude. It explains itself.
      - ant6n 4y ago
        Just post more relevant links, “dude”.
zosima 4y ago
It may be related to them preparing for a round of begging for public money? https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/07/28/politics/house-vote-chips-bill-semiconductor/index.html https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/07/28/politics/house-vote-chips...
jvanderbot 4y ago
perhaps I'm overly optimistic, but I view this as a trend toward honest with new leadership. Old Intel, judging by comments, would have done anything to avoid reporting a loss.
suprjami 4y ago
I always thought that not licensing x86 would come back to bite Intel. They've been on top for so long that they've got complacent about many things (power, heat, security), meanwhile many others have been making their own CPUs and the supporting software ecosystem. The world is now poised to replace x86 and there's nothing Intel can do about it. The writing is on the wall for this company. Hopefully their network and GPU divisions survive the purge.
anewpersonality 4y ago
Recently, Intel has been hiring top SWE's from Apple, Netflix and more. I wonder how they feel joining a sinking ship for $$$.
- n7pdx 4y ago
  My org lost a few people to Intel. They all did their research and know full well the technical and managerial leadership at Intel are total clowns and that Intel is finished. So they are going to rest and vest. They all know Intel is finished but the short term bump in pay is quite attractive for people who want to take a break.
  - anewpersonality 4y ago

41 points by chmaynard 4y ago

This is huge. They used to do anything to report a profit. I was part of the 2016 reduction and we knew it was for them to reduce sg&a. They offered early retirement to many high level (VP+) to get salaries off the books. We were always told Intel would never report a loss.

gumby 4y ago
If you’re going to have a loss, or have to pull out all the stops to scrape by, just make it as bad as possible (jam everything bad you can into it). Then you take all the pain at once, and from that point on everything will look better. People will say “look how far they’ve come since that $500MM loss!” At least, that’s the theory. Especially handy right now when congress was debating (now passed) a handout to the industry.

rvz 4y ago

Yes. It really is indeed back to the drawing board for Intel [0] and now they are really losing money. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30603789 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30603789

skywal_l 4y ago
I have no corporate financial knowledge so I may out of my depth here but I believe they have made significant investments lately to try to spur up a chip industry outside of China's sphere of influence. Would their bad results be, partly, the result of this?
- BostonEnginerd 4y ago
  One of the announcements was a reduction in the amount they were spending on building fabs. I’m not sure cutting capex to pay a dividend is a good move.
  - indemnity 4y ago
    Right, so that’s how they’re planning to compete with the likes of TSMC…. By protecting the dividend at all costs and cutting back on core business investment? They’re done and never coming back. Typical American short term thinking.
    - yucky 4y ago
      Or viewed another way, they're seeing the writing on the wall for TSMC when China takes Taiwan. AMD has no fabs so they're basically a chip design firm. Intel with the backing of the US govt will be the only game in town.

rentfree-media 4y ago

It's really amazing that they have managed to miss every trend for so long. Mobile? Nope, don't care, let it go to Qualcomm, Arm, etc. Cloud shift from on-premise hardware? Screw their power and efficiency demands, let them eat cake (buy Xeons).

distances 4y ago
This is of course overly simplistic. They absolutely wanted to have mobile too, but didn't manage to execute it. Nokia and surely also other manufacturers were counting on Intel delivering, and had to scramble to re-engineer some flagships in the pipeline to switch to available ARM components when Intel's mobile failure became likely.

999900000999 4y ago

Does anyone else think the future of personal computing is 100% arm? Arm runs cheaper and more efficient. Aside from PC gaming, were AMD has been doing exceptionally well lately, I don't know what Intel's place is to the typical person.

hulitu 4y ago
> Does anyone else think the future of personal computing is 100% arm? Citation needed. VIA made power efficient X86 processors.
suprjami 4y ago
Jon Masters does: https://twitter.com/jonmasters https://twitter.com/jonmasters
- ant6n 4y ago
  Who is that guy and what is he saying, is linking to the person relevant?
  - suprjami 4y ago
    If only he had a site with a short bio and a feed of posts on the topic of this thread. Oh well, I guess we'll never know. Just click the link dude. It explains itself.
    - ant6n 4y ago
      Just post more relevant links, “dude”.

zosima 4y ago

It may be related to them preparing for a round of begging for public money? https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/07/28/politics/house-vote-chips-bill-semiconductor/index.html https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/07/28/politics/house-vote-chips...

jvanderbot 4y ago

perhaps I'm overly optimistic, but I view this as a trend toward honest with new leadership. Old Intel, judging by comments, would have done anything to avoid reporting a loss.

suprjami 4y ago

I always thought that not licensing x86 would come back to bite Intel. They've been on top for so long that they've got complacent about many things (power, heat, security), meanwhile many others have been making their own CPUs and the supporting software ecosystem. The world is now poised to replace x86 and there's nothing Intel can do about it. The writing is on the wall for this company. Hopefully their network and GPU divisions survive the purge.

anewpersonality 4y ago

Recently, Intel has been hiring top SWE's from Apple, Netflix and more. I wonder how they feel joining a sinking ship for $$$.

n7pdx 4y ago
My org lost a few people to Intel. They all did their research and know full well the technical and managerial leadership at Intel are total clowns and that Intel is finished. So they are going to rest and vest. They all know Intel is finished but the short term bump in pay is quite attractive for people who want to take a break.
- anewpersonality 4y ago