Intel, once a leading chipmaker whose chips were the brains in most computers, has been left behind in AI. In fact, it has missed opportunities. It has become a victim of an organisational culture (OC) born out of decades of success and high profits when Intel chips and Microsoft’s Software defined the PC industry. Investments in new chip designs took a backseat and focused on money-spinning PC-era blueprint x86 architecture.
Nvidia is now the central player in AI chipmaking, and has become the most valuable corporation of the world — its market value is more than $ 3 trillion, roughly 30 times more than Intel’s, its struggling Silicon Valley icon, which has fallen below $100 billion.
Intel has lately designed an AI chip for laptops. However, ironically, these chips are not made in Intel factories but in TSMC, in Taiwan.
In 2005, Intel’s Chief Executive advised the Board to buy Nvidia, a startup then, for $20 billion. The idea was to get the technology for graphic chips. However, the Board acted as a damp squib. The then chief executive who put forward the idea of buying Nvidia passed away in 2017. The very proposal and its rejection were a fateful moment.
Today Nvidia is unrivaled AI chipmaker.
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