Bill Gates thinks Intel has ‘lost its way’

Back in the day, you would be hard-pressed to find a computer that wasn’t powered by an Intel CPU. These days, Intel’s dominance in the space is not what it used to be. We’re seeing more AMD CPUs being offered as alternatives. Companies like Apple and Qualcomm are also launching computers powered by custom Arm-based chipsets. So it’s no surprise that even Bill Gates thinks that Intel might have lost its way.

Intel’s decline over the years

In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Bill Gates shared his thoughts on Intel’s apparent decline. According to Bill Gates, he thinks that Intel has lost its way and is now behind the competition. The Microsoft co-founder believes that Intel co-founder Gordon Moore played a crucial role in ensuring Intel stayed ahead in chip design and manufacturing. However, as Intel’s leadership changed over the years, the company seemingly failed to innovate.

This resulted in them falling behind in key areas such as chip fabrication and AI processing. In fact, some of you might recall some of Intel’s even earlier failures where they tried to enter the mobile space with chipsets of their own. Intel’s failure also allowed other companies to catch up, such as Taiwan’s TSMC which is now the world’s largest semiconductor company.

According to Gates, “I am stunned that Intel basically lost its way. (Intel co-founder) Gordon Moore always kept Intel at the state of the art. And now they are kind of behind in terms of chip design and they are kind of behind in chip fabrication. And both of those are very capital intensive.”

Gates also pointed to Intel’s failure to capitalize on the AI trend. When AI started to become popular, many companies were quick to jump on board. We’re talking about companies such as Apple, Google, Samsung, Qualcomm, Microsoft, and Amazon, just to name a few. Perhaps Intel’s slowness or unwillingness eventually allowed competitors such as NVIDIA and Qualcomm to gain dominance in the AI space. Now NVIDIA’s GPUs have become the go-to hardware for AI training needs, and Intel is nowhere to be found.

Setbacks along the way

There is no doubt that Intel produces extremely powerful and capable CPUs. In fact, many high-end gaming rigs, production machines, and servers continue to rely on Intel. However, the company has made some missteps along the way that might have eroded confidence in the company.

Back in 2024, Intel’s Raptor Lake CPUs ran into thermal issues. This resulted in reports of physical damage to motherboards and CPUs. Intel later confirmed that this damage was permanent and irreversible. Recalling or offering returns could have assuaged customers, but yet the company decided not to issue a recall and remained vague on warranty claims.

It wasn’t a one-time issue either. Later, Intel’s Arrow Lake CPUs ran into its own problems which could have very well sealed its fate.

Despite these challenges, Gates is hoping that Intel can recover, although he thinks that things are looking pretty tough at the moment.

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