Intel ruled tech. Now it’s in deep trouble

When legendary former Intel CEO Andy Grove wrote his bestseller “Only the Paranoid Survive” in 1996 about how to predict tech inflection points that might undermine a business, the notion that his company might face such a risk was purely theoretical.

When legendary former Intel CEO Andy Grove wrote his bestseller “Only the Paranoid Survive” in 1996 about how to predict tech inflection points that might undermine a business, the notion that his company might face such a risk was purely theoretical. At the time, Intel was the world’s largest producer of computer chips, and its technology was housed inside nearly every PC. Grove’s mission was for his leading American tech company to do more than just supply the parts, but to drive an ambitious vision for the future of computing in which PCs would be used for everything from watching movies and playing games to storing photos and staying connected to friends. Intel would power all of them. Intel may have predicted the evolution of PCs, but it missed the boat on both mobile computing and the AI boom, the two major technology waves that have defined the past decade and a half. That means nearly two decades after Grove outlined his vision, Intel is a shell of its former self. Intel’s stock hit its all-time high more than 24 years ago: on August 31, 2000. In recent years it has plunged — it is currently down a stunning 68% from its record. In August, the company said it would lay off 15% of its staff as part of an effort to slash $10 billion in costs. And last month, Intel lost its spot in the Dow Jones Industrial Average to Nvidia, marking the end of a 25-year run that began when it was among the first two technology firms to be included in the blue-chip index. On Monday, the company announced the retirement of CEO Pat Gelsinger, the decades-long company veteran who was thought of as a sort of prodigal son who would return to fix the company when he took over the top job nearly three years ago. But Gelsinger failed to right the ship. And now, investors and company watchers are seriously questioning whether Intel can ever regain its industry-leading position, despite its importance to American chipmaking. “The odds of them going back to the glory days, at this point in time, looks very bleak,” said Angelo Zino, technology analyst at CFRA Research.