Intel’s Diversion: A Calculated Risk

The fourth-quarter results, while falling somewhat short of the breathless pronouncements of the optimists, conceal a more interesting development. The custom chip business, it seems, is not merely a palliative for declining margins, but a potentially lucrative, if somewhat improbable, enterprise. The market, of course, is awash with silicon merchants, but Intel, with its access to capital and manufacturing facilities, possesses a distinct advantage – a sort of industrial inertia that few can match.


