Intel CEO

Arm CEO Rene Haas Weighs In on Intel’s Future

As someone who has been in the industry my whole career, it is a little sad to see what’s happening… Intel is an innovation powerhouse. At the same time, you have to innovate in our industry. There are lots of tombstones of great tech companies that don’t reinvent themselves.

I think Intel’s biggest dilemma is how to disassociate being either a vertical company or a fabless company, to oversimplify it. That is the fork in the road that they’ve faced for the last decade. Pat [Gelsinger] had a strategy that was very clear that vertical was the way to win. In my opinion, when he took that strategy on in 2021, that was not a three-year strategy. That was a five-to-10-year strategy. He’s gone and there’s a new CEO to be brought in and the decision has to be made.

My personal bias says that vertical integration is a pretty powerful thing. If they could get that right, I think they would be in an amazing position. But the cost associated with it is so high that it may be too big of a hill to climb.

I’m not going to comment on the rumors that we wanted to buy them. But I think, again, if you’re a vertically integrated company and the power of your strategy is in the fact that you have a product and you have fabs, inherently, you have a potential huge advantage in terms of cost versus the competition. When Pat was the CEO, I did tell him more than once, "You ought to license Arm because if you’ve got your own fabs, fabs are all about volume and we can provide volume." I wasn’t successful in convincing him to do that.

On the Rumors that Arm Will Build Its Own AI Chips

If you’re defining a computer architecture and you’re building the future of computing, one of the things you need to be very mindful of is that link between hardware and software in terms of really understanding where the tradeoffs are being made, where the observations are being made, what are the ultimate benefits to consumers from a chip that has that type of integration.

That is easier to do if you’re building something…the news today. It now seems highly probable that Trump — likely with involvement from Musk — will push to get some kind of deal done. I could see Amazon, Google (especially given that I’m hearing search ads will be a big focus for TikTok next year), Microsoft (yes, maybe again), Meta, and a few other players make a bid if they knew it would pass antitrust scrutiny.

Conclusion

Arm CEO Rene Haas shares his thoughts on the future of Intel and the tech industry. He believes that Intel’s biggest dilemma is its decision to either be a vertical company or a fabless company. Haas also shares his thoughts on the rumors that Arm will build its own AI chips and the potential advantages and disadvantages of such a move.

FAQs

Q: What does Arm CEO Rene Haas think about Intel’s future?
A: Haas believes that Intel’s biggest dilemma is its decision to either be a vertical company or a fabless company.

Q: Will Arm build its own AI chips?
A: Haas thinks that building its own AI chips could be beneficial for Arm, but it’s not a decision that has been made yet.

Q: Who might bid on Intel?
A: Haas mentions that Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta, and a few other players could make a bid on Intel if they knew it would pass antitrust scrutiny.

Q: What is the advantage of being a vertically integrated company?
A: Haas believes that being a vertically integrated company could give Intel a huge advantage in terms of cost versus the competition.