The chief architect behind Intel's Xeon line of server CPUs is leaving Chipzilla for greener pastures. Senior fellow and Xeon Chief Ronak Singhal's nearly 30-year tenure at the x86 giant will come to an end later this month, according to a CRN report, which The Register has independently confirmed. The Carnegie Mellon alum holds degrees in electrical and computer engineering, along with at least 30 patents involving CPUs. Singhal joined Intel in 1997 after spending the previous summer as an intern at Cyrix.
Zinsner emphasizes that the construction of 14A production capacity will only proceed if there are sufficient commitments from external customers. According to Zinsner, this is purely financial common sense. The chip manufacturer wants to avoid making billions in investments without guaranteed sales.
To help with that transition, President Donald Trump has introduced potential chip tariffs and policies in recent months meant to bring more semiconductor manufacturing Stateside. In late August, The Trump administration took an unprecedented step toward that goal when it converted an existing government grant, meant for domestic semiconductor manufacturing, into a 10% equity stake in Intel. This deal was structured to grant the U.S. government additional equity in Intel if the company's ownership of its foundry business -
[T]he truce came with a cost: In return for Trump's support, the administration proposed taking an equity stake in the company. It decided to convert nearly $9 billion in grants-promised to Intel as part of the 2022 Chips Act-into a 10% equity stake in the company, an unusual arrangement that makes the government Intel's biggest shareholder. The meeting was the pivot point in a frenzied period for Intel, once one of America's most venerated technology companies, now stuck in a yearslong downward spiral.
Donald Trump has a message for critics who think turning the U.S. government into a major stockholder of Intel is a "socialist" move: More is coming. "I will make deals like that for our Country all day long," the president posted on Truth Social after critics piled on, adding later about future ownership stakes, "I want to try and get as much as I can."
Politicians can end up with strange bedfellows in this chaotic age, but certain economic tenets are virtually incontrovertible: calls to nationalize industry typically come from the left, while the right steadfastly opposes those efforts in favor of market-based solutions. And yet, for some reason, the ever-chaotic president Donald Trump has directed the US government to acquire a 10 percent stake in the troubled chipmaker Intel - a bizarre and impractical move that's being decried across the ideological spectrum.
Shares of the struggling chipmaker have rallied 28% this month, adding about $24 billion in market value, on reports that the US government is in talks for a potential equity stake, as well as plans for a $2 billion investment from Japan's SoftBank Group Corp. The jump has Intel trading at 53 times profits projected over the next 12 months, the highest since early 2002, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
By the time Intel was celebrating its 10th anniversary in 1978 - a huge party at Daly City's Cow Palace, complete with disco music and a stock gift to every employee - the company had already racked up a list of industry-defining accomplishments.