INTEL AND SEMICONDUCTORS SEEM IMPORTANT ONCE AGAIN
Since Pat Gelsinger returned to Intel as its latest CEO (January 2021) the spotlight seems to have refocused on Intel and the semiconductor industry.
It is a multi-faceted story that features a global pandemic, which has in turn triggered a shortage of semiconductors — causing products ranging from automobiles to high-tech gadgets to be in short supply. COVID has companies and their employees scrambling to learn how to effectively work from home and get the right equipment to do so. The chip shortage has also highlighted the fact that Intel is the only large US semiconductor manufacturer remaining (12 percent), with the largest manufacturers all located in Asia (Taiwan and South Korea). Rebalancing this imbalance has been an area of emphasis for Gelsinger.
There is also a growing concern that China seeks to reunify Taiwan into its borders and South Korea is just a few hundred miles from China’s borders, so conflict in the region could disrupt semiconductor production and send the world into an economic crisis.
As all this happens on the global stage, Gelsinger is trying to return Intel to its past glory by bolstering the company’s manufacturing capabilities and capacity (for internal and external customers), get its chip design and products back on track, rebuild the company culture and restore growth and momentum to the company we (as Intel employees, now retirees) helped create. It’s a huge task and the jury is still out on whether he can achieve the goal, but one thing is sure… people are interested.
In 2021 the amount of press coverage of Intel, its role in the global semiconductor market, its strategy and its performance has increased sharply. Qualitatively the tone has improved, but that is not to say that all are convinced the company can successfully navigate through the challenges facing it and reclaim its position at the top of the industry.
But it matters that Intel once again matters. Here are just a few of the 2021 stories over the past year that focus on Gelsinger and Intel’s efforts and challenges.
- Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger’s Greatest Hits of 2021 – SDxCentral
- Opinion: Intel CEO: The best way to fix America’s chip shortage – CNN
- Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger: The Silicon Man With The Software Plan (crn.com)
- Pat Gelsinger pitched a strategic reversal to Intel’s board. They liked it so much, they made him CEO – oregonlive.com
- What Gelsinger Can Do To Unscrew Intel (nextplatform.com)
- Intel shares fall sharply as new CEO lays out the cost of his comeback plan – oregonlive.com
- Intel shows research for packing more computing power into chips beyond 2025 (yahoo.com)
— Howard