Having worked in the technology industry all my life, I feel a bit sad seeing Intel's current situation, "said Ren é Haas, CEO of Arm, in a recent interview with the American technology media The Verge.
Intel has always been Arm's "archenemy". However, Arm's current market value is close to $150 billion, far surpassing the struggling Intel.
Haas pointed out that Intel was once an innovation giant. But the technology industry must constantly innovate. Many great technology companies have disappeared due to their failure to reshape themselves
Earlier this week, Intel CEO Pat Kilsinger retired, allowing Intel to reconsider some restructuring plans and transaction options, including the proposed spin off of its chip manufacturing business that Kissinger rejected.
Haas said that Intel's biggest challenge is how to integrate the vertical integration mode (IDM, which is responsible for chip design, manufacturing, packaging testing, and sales) and fabless mode (Fabless, only responsible for chip design, outsourcing the rest of the process). Intel has been wavering for the past decade
Kissinger's strategy is very clear, that IDM is the way to win. He started implementing this strategy in 2021, but in my opinion, three years is far from enough. This should be a long-term strategy of five to ten years. After Kissinger leaves office, Intel's new CEO must make a choice
Haas believes that IDM is a very good strategy. If they can do the IDM mode well, I believe they will have a huge advantage. But the cost of IDM is very high, which may become a huge challenge
There have also been reports that before Kilsinger's retirement, Haas had approached Intel and wanted to purchase a majority stake in the company. Arm has also been rumored to intend to expand into independently manufactured chips, rather than just authorized designs.
However, Haas did not comment on the rumors. If you are an IDM company and your strategic advantage lies in owning products and wafer fabs, then in terms of cost, you will have a huge potential advantage over your competitors, "he said.
When Kissinger became CEO of Intel, Haas urged him more than once to consider partnering with Arm, "because if you have your own wafer fab, the key to a wafer fab is production, and we can provide that production. But I didn't succeed in persuading him to do so
Regarding the rumor that Arm will independently develop AI chips, Haas stated that designing computer architectures and future computing technologies requires special attention to the relationship between hardware and software, a deep understanding of where trade-offs need to be made, and ultimately benefiting consumers from the chips. Developing a certain chip provides a better perspective for balancing design and can be closer to achieving goals than licensing intellectual property. Therefore, if we are going to do something, this will be one of the reasons
Recently, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated that artificial general intelligence (AGI) may become a reality by 2025. Haas said, "I know he has his own definition and reasons for AGI. I don't really care about the difference between AGI and ASI (Super Artificial Intelligence)
What I am more concerned about is when these AI agents start thinking, reasoning, and creating. It's like a moment of crossing the Rubicon River. If you had asked me this question a year ago, I would have said it's still far away. But now if you ask me, I would have said it's closer to this moment