Intel to boost gross margins – new products must deliver 50% gross profit (tomshardware.com)

I read the title and all I could think of was Michael Scott, “I declare bankruptcy!” Hoping to will reality to your need.

More seriously, isn’t this signaling that all experimental R&D is out? Nothing but incremental progress can deliver anything but an approximation of profit margin.

The falling margin is a consequence of falling competitiveness. I don’t think you’ll arrest that by decreeing high margin only going forward. But sure give it a go and see I guess.

This likely means they’ll kill their GPUs? Don’t think those are particularly profitable

My google fu is failing me but this sounds a bit like Marissa Mayer’s no more small ideas at Yahoo memo. Also if I was a competitor this would let me know just how hard I would have to compete for Intel to give up.

So i guess overnight we have a new floor for unempirical projections of future project profit :D

A lot of made up numbers now have a min(50.0) equivalent somewhere :P

Looks like Intel is going the same way as Boeing - focus on only shareholder value.

But what does that actually mean in terms of strategy? Server and enterprise products have the highest margin. Normal consumers, aside from the small gaming segment, are price sensitive. Are they shifting away from the consumer PC market?

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100 comments, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44611098

> After years of innovation and community collaboration, we’re ending support for Clear Linux OS. Effective immediately, Intel will no longer provide security patches, updates, or maintenance for Clear Linux OS, and the Clear Linux OS GitHub repository will be archived in read-only mode.. Intel remains deeply invested in the Linux ecosystem, actively supporting and contributing to various open-source projects and Linux distributions to enable and optimize for Intel hardware.

This article doesn't seem to actually report anything. It is obvious that no company can arbitrarily choose its own profit margins or they wouldn't stop at 50%. So basically all we have here is the Intel CEO says he wants Intel to be profitable and they're going to prioritise products they think are more profitable than others. I hope this isn't news.

The only thing I can spot in the article that wouldn't come up in a psychic's cold read is speculation that there might be a 20% layoff coming hidden towards the end. I'd suggest reading this sort of article is a waste of attention better spent elsewhere.

>Lip-Bu Tan is "laser-focused" on getting Intel back to maximizing shareholder value

I am guessing this is the board's decision again.

Zen 6c is about to come out for server. That is 256 Core per socket. I haven't followed Intel's roadmap for a long time, mostly due to it be very confusing and not exciting. But I am not even aware of any grand plans with TSMC. Which means they are betting their foundry to deliver, both on cost, capacity, and performance.

But AMD needs to work harder. I have been saying this for so many years it is tiring. They need to further increase market shares in every single market, Servers especially hyperscalers, PC, Laptop, OEMS players. I have given them benefits of doubt for so many years Zen 6 generation will be the last of it. I am not even mentioning GPU.

Yes the company that has the least competitive, least desired chips, must either raise its prices or cut costs by reducing support to get higher margins! That’s the real issue!! /S

Throw the financial people out. Get the builders and chip designers back in control. Andy Grove is rolling in his grave. FFS.

This is the type of thinking that got Intel to sell their arm CPU product line.

Intel CEO: "Twenty, 30 years ago, we were really the leader. Now I think the world has changed. We are not in the top 10 semiconductor companies."[1]

Ouch. Although Investopedia rates them as #5.

[1] https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/intel-ceo-says-it...

Or else what?

Killing R&D is usually the direct result of such "focus" which leads to dead end anyway.

I felt like Intel was slowly making progress, but the board was too impatient and let Pat Gelsinger go too soon. I don't understand why Lip-Bu Tan would be a better choice than Gelsinger.

Me before a basketball game. My team to score more points than the other team, all new shots must go in.

Reminds me of the CEO who said that "from now on we will focus on low-risk projects with huge upside".

> Maximizing shareholder value

Depressing. Intel is going to die under this guy's "leadership". I wonder what company will swoop in and buy them? I wonder how much his golden parachute will be.

They’re just going to offshore a bunch of jobs for a little short term stock sugar rush before the whole thing falls apart

That's gonna be tough when you're paying your competitor to make your products for you.

> To reach this, Tan has committed to investing in recruiting and retaining top talent; "I believe Intel has lost some of this talent over the years; I want to create a culture of innovation empowerment."

So that means they're going to start paying well and treating people well? Right?

Because compared to FAANG Intel is a big paycut. Particularly in ML the gap is quite large.

Reminds me of that talk on steel mills: https://bhc3.com/2009/05/11/when-being-rational-kills-your-b... You give up the low-end of your business over and over until one day you wake up trying to compete on quality for a tiny share of the market with no revenue left to fund it.

What a silly idea. Nobody can predict the future (as Intel has demonstrated many times saying no to iPhone for example).

So you need to experiment and try different things to not become a Dinosaur. Not just the obvious things.