Finance
Intel's tumultuous journey from Silicon Valley stalwart to AI straggler
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 13, 2025
7 min readLast updated: January 24, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 13, 2025
7 min readLast updated: January 24, 2026
Intel, once a chip leader, struggles in the AI era as Nvidia invests $5 billion to aid its recovery amid competition from AMD.
(Reuters) - Nvidia on Thursday unveiled plans to invest $5 billion in Intel, offering a fresh lease of life to the crisis-hit chipmaker, which has struggled to turn itself around after a series of missteps.
Intel, once the undisputed leader in chip manufacturing, has fallen on hard times after missing the AI boom, while its longtime rival AMD has been gaining share in its mainstay personal computer and server semiconductor markets.
Here's a timeline of the major events that have shaped the chipmaker:
1968 - Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore found Intel, helping reshape California's Santa Clara Valley from fruit orchards into the Silicon Valley tech hub.
1971 - Intel introduces the 4004, the world's first commercially made programmable microprocessor, with 2,300 transistors. These were among the first chips that could be programmed to perform specific functions, unlike previous processors that were hardwired only for a certain task - a turning point in the history of the semiconductor industry that laid the groundwork for the development of CPUs.
1981 - Intel's 8088 microprocessor, with 29,000 transistors, becomes the brain in the IBM Personal Computer, kicking off the era of personal computing.
1982 - Advanced Micro Devices, co-founded in 1969 by a fellow Fairchild Semiconductor alum, becomes a second producer of the Intel 8086 microprocessor. This partnership would later cause a long legal battle over AMD's rights to use Intel's x86 chip architecture, which is the basis of a majority of PC and server chips today.
1985 - Intel decides to withdraw from the dynamic random access memory (DRAM) market - its initial claim to fame - as slumping demand prompts it to focus on microprocessors. It cuts its workforce, and lays off thousands of workers through the end of the decade, hurt by an industry-wide downturn brought on by memory over-supply.
1987 - Andy Grove, famous for his motto, "only the paranoid survive", becomes Intel's third CEO and steers the company through a massive slump in the chip market. Intel solidifies its position as a linchpin of the American semiconductor industry, while players like AMD and National Semiconductor struggle.
1991 - Intel launches its "Intel Inside" marketing campaign for PCs with its chips, and the television commercials become a cultural phenomenon.
1993 - Intel introduces Pentium microprocessors, boasting 3.1 million transistors and running 300 times faster than the 8088.
1999 - Intel and Windows maker Microsoft, allies referred to as Wintel, become the first two tech companies to be added to the prestigious Dow Jones Industrial Average.
1999 - Nvidia introduces its first graphics processing units (GPU), which during the 2000s would become an important fixture in PCs and servers with the advent of gaming and multimedia applications. Intel's development strategy remained focused on CPUs, Reuters reported, eventually costing it a head start in the AI revolution of the 2020s.
2000 - Driven by the dot-com bubble, Intel's stock market value reaches a record $495 billion as it, Microsoft, Cisco Systems and Dell benefit from an explosion of computer sales. By late 2024, Intel's value would fall below $100 billion.
2007 - Apple launches the iPhone, helping kick off a mobile phone boom that Intel mostly missed. Under CEO Paul Otellini, Intel turned down a deal to make iPhone processors because it did not stand to profit enough from the arrangement. Instead, Apple used chips based on designs from Arm Holdings, whose tech now dominates the mobile market.
2013 - Otellini steps down as CEO amid pressure from investors. Former chief operating officer Brian Krzanich becomes CEO, with a focus on diversifying the business beyond PCs to the data center market and automotive chips through acquisitions like Altera and Mobileye.
2014-16 - Under CEO Krzanich, Intel held back on using next-generation equipment used in the extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) technique, crucial for next-generation chips, believing it would "never work" and focusing the company's engineers elsewhere. The fateful decision sets back Intel's design and manufacturing businesses for roughly five years.
2017 - Samsung overtakes the U.S. company as the world's largest chipmaker by revenue as prices soared in Samsung's stronghold of the memory market. At the same time, Intel cedes its manufacturing technology lead to Taiwan's TSMC, now the world's largest contract chip manufacturer with customers including Apple.
2018 - Krzanich steps down amid mounting manufacturing setbacks. Chief Financial Officer Bob Swan becomes interim CEO. The company declines an offer to invest in OpenAI later that year; Swan does not believe generative AI will reach market in near future. OpenAI by 2024 has a larger market valuation than Intel.
2020 - Intel's annual revenue peaks at $77.87 billion, bolstered by pandemic sales of PCs. Revenue then declines as Intel struggles with increased competition from AMD and Nvidia. Nvidia overtakes Intel in terms of market value, as the company's GPUs become the key chip for generative AI technology.
2021 - Pat Gelsinger becomes CEO, winning praise from investors who want a turnaround after manufacturing setbacks and deepening market share losses. He focuses on transforming Intel into a producer of chips for other "fabless" firms, including his "five nodes in four years" plan that would cost billions and sap Intel's cash flow and margins. Intel announces a $20 billion planned investment for two manufacturing facilities in Arizona.
2022 - Intel's market value sinks below AMD's as the smaller chipmaker eats away at Intel's share of the server CPU and PC chip market and becomes the most formidable challenger to Nvidia. Semiconductor veteran Lip-Bu Tan joins Intel's board.
2024 - Intel unveils a plan to invest $100 billion across four U.S. states to build and expand factories, after securing federal grants and loans aimed at bolstering U.S. chip manufacturing. It cuts 17,500 jobs, suspends dividend and embarks on a turnaround of its money-losing manufacturing business.
2024 - Tan exits Intel board over the company’s bloated workforce, risk-averse culture and lagging artificial intelligence strategy, according to Reuters' sources.
2024 - Qualcomm has explored acquiring pieces of Intel chip design business, sources tell Reuters. Intel later considers spinning out its manufacturing division.
2024 - Intel's CEO Pat Gelsinger resigns before completing his turnaround strategy.
March 12, 2025 - Intel appoints chip industry veteran Lip-Bu Tan as its CEO, who says he aims to restore the company's "world-class status."
April 14, 2025 - Intel reveals plans to sell 51% of Altera to private equity firm Silver Lake, valuing the unit at $8.75 billion, well below the nearly $17 billion Intel paid in 2015.
July 24, 2025 - Tan vows to make Intel's operations lean and build factory capacity only when there's demand to match it. The company said it would further reduce headcount to 75,000 by the end of the year, down 22% from the end of 2024.
August 7, 2025 - U.S. President Donald Trump demands immediate resignation of Tan, calling him "highly conflicted" due to his ties to Chinese firms.
August 19, 2025 - Intel gets $2 billion capital injection from SoftBank Group .
August 22, 2025 - The United States government takes about 10% stake in Intel for $8.9 billion by converting government grants into an equity share.
September 18, 2025 - Nvidia unveils plans to invest $5 billion in Intel's common stock and work with the struggling chipmaker to develop PC and data center chips. The stake makes Nvidia one of Intel's largest shareholders, giving it roughly 4% or more of the company after new shares are issued to complete the deal.
(Reporting by Noel Randewich, Max A. Cherney, Kritika Lamba, Pooja Menon, Arsheeya Bajwa and Harshita Mary Varghese; Editing by Peter Henderson, Claudia Parsons, Tasim Zahid and Anil D'Silva)
The article discusses Intel's struggles in the AI market and Nvidia's investment to aid its recovery.
Intel missed the AI boom and faced strategic missteps, allowing competitors like AMD to gain market share.
Nvidia plans to invest $5 billion in Intel to help revitalize the struggling chipmaker.
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