Things seem to go from bad to worse for Intel as the year draws on. Back in 2018, it appeared it was heading for a new golden age with the hiring of many well-known people from within the tech industry. New node processes were on the books for its aging CPU designs, and as a surprise to all, murmurings of a new discrete GPU product line began to emerge. Soon after these positive events, things began to take a turn for the worse.
- A seemingly never-ending amount of CPU exploits began to be publicized as Spectre and Meltdown were discovered. They have continued throughout 2020 as well. Some mitigations were also noted to cause significant performance decreases, which only added salt to the wounds.
- Key executive positions were vacated in what seemed to be a mass exodus in 2019. Most recently Jim Keller departed. Not too long after that, there was news that its Chief Engineering Officer would be leaving soon.
- Intel began 2020 with a small number of layoffs in the U.S. but did state it intended to hire an even larger amount of staff down the road.
- Three years after their planned launch, its 10 nm chips finally began to appear in 2019. Some of these, however, have continued to be plagued by supply chain issues throughout 2020, thus causing some business partners to switch over to rival chipmaker AMD.
- Just this week, yet another delay was announced, as its 7 nm processors may not actually launch in 2021 as planned. The latest delay is reportedly due to a yield degradation defect that will push back their release to either 2022 or 2023.
Potentially New Legal Action in the Works
Now on the heels of that announcement, it appears more woes in the form of legal action could be on the horizon for Intel. Law firm Hagens Berman has begun an investigation resulting from Intel’s share prices dropping after its latest delay news. This latest drop in prices was reported as the worst in 20 years.
HAGENS BERMAN, NATIONAL TRIAL ATTORNEYS, Encourages Intel (INTC) Investors with Significant Losses and Persons Who May Assist Firm’s Investigation of Possible Securities Fraud to Contact Its Attorneys Now
Stacy Rasgon, of Sanford C. Bernstein, had this to say regarding the latest delay news:
. . .the worst we have seen in our career covering the company. . .Whatever little credibility they had is out of the window.
No one knows for sure what the future holds for Intel, but one thing is certain, it has some uphill battles ahead.