Last night, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger gave one of the most momentous speeches I’ve heard in my decades in the technology industry. It was so comprehensive and far ranging that it will literally set the pace for peers, rivals, customers, and suppliers for years to come.
Gelsinger, who recently returned to Intel after eight years leading VMware, was so energetic in his exposition and question-answering that he didn’t hesitate to grab the helm from George Davis, his CFO, on a tricky financial question (he did soon thereafter let Davis elucidate further on his points). But there was nothing that Gelsinger wasn’t in command of.
No big surprise that the stock was up 6.6% in after-hours trading. This stuff is earth shattering.
So, first, Intel will become a foundry — like TSMC, Samsung, GlobalFoundries, and UMC — and not just for x86 silicon, its own bread and butter, but also for ARM and RISC-V parts, making it a potential supplier to anyone who has their chips fabricated by others. Mind boggling to think that Qualcomm, recently a bitter rival, is now a potential customer. And this isn’t made up. Gelsinger cited Qualcomm specifically as a company Intel is talking with about fabrication services. Right now, Qualcomm has chips made mostly at GlobalFoundries and TSMC. Other potential customers include Apple (not as a buyer of Intel x86 chips, as before, but as…
