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Intel’s struggles have not only disappointed PC builders, but also Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who’s shocked by the US chipmaker’s decline.
??“I am stunned that Intel basically lost its way,” the former Microsoft CEO told the Associated Press while discussing his new memoir, Source Code: My Beginnings.
Microsoft and Intel helped usher in the PC era, especially in the 1980s and 1990s when consumer computing took off. But Gates lamented the current state of the chipmaker, two months after Pat Gelsinger abruptly resigned as CEO following company-wide layoffs.
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 said.
Gates also brought up how Intel is missing out on the AI chip boom as rival Nvidia dominates sales for enterprise-grade GPUs to power generative AI technologies. Intel "missed the AI chip revolution, and with their fabrication capabilities, they don’t even use standards that people like Nvidia and Qualcomm find easy,” he said.
(Photo by Cesc Maymo/Getty Images)Gates was holding out hope that Gelsinger could turn the ship around before his resignation. “I thought Pat Gelsinger was very brave to say, ‘No, I am going to fix the design side, I am going to fix the fab side,’” he said. “I was hoping for his sake, for the country’s sake, that he would be successful. I hope Intel recovers, but it looks pretty tough for them at this stage.”
It sounds like Gates isn’t even sure Intel can bounce back. It's facing growing competition from AMD, Apple, and Qualcomm, which have been tapping Taiwan’s TSMC to build cutting-edge PC chips. Still, Intel is trying to engineer a turnaround with the arrival of "18A," its most advanced chip manufacturing process yet. Expect 18A in Intel code-named “Panther Lake” PC chips during the second half of 2025.
As for Gates, he told PCMag in our own interview that he continues to review Microsoft products, including its efforts to harness generative AI. "How do you put AI into Office? I’m pushing,” Gates said. “They’re never moving as fast as I want, so I’m pushing hard about how Office can do even more with AI, and they have a very aggressive roadmap for that.”