
Intel, for a while, seemed to be staging a comeback. Their new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, sent out an email—a very long email, I imagine—about “reinventing an industry icon.” It felt a little desperate, like a magician attempting a trick he’d clearly forgotten the steps to. They even had a decent run, the stock jumping around like a caffeinated squirrel. Then, last week, the whole thing just…deflated. A 20% drop. Turns out, promises and architecture names like “Panther Lake” don’t actually translate into revenue. They’re down 4% year-over-year, and bracing for more. Apparently, holding 85-95% of the server CPU market a few years ago doesn’t guarantee anything. Now they’re hovering around 55%, which, my uncle would argue, is still a perfectly respectable voltage.