評論
打印
His first job will be to try to turn the firm’s ailing manufacturing division around. Intel already outsources the manufacturing of some lower-end chips to TSMC. Its production woes will force it, at least temporarily, to send more business to Taiwan, perhaps including some of its pricier desktop and graphics chips. Daniel Loeb, an activist investor with a sizeable stake in Intel, sent a letter to the firm’s management in December urging it to abandon factories entirely and restrict itself to designing chips that other firms, such as TSMC, would make. On paper, that looks attractive: Intel capital expenditure in 2020 amounted to $14.2bn, almost all of it on its chip factories. AMD, meanwhile, spun out its manufacturing business in 2009, and is thriving today. Nvidia has been “fabless” since its founding in 1993.
他的首要任務將是努力扭轉公司陷入困境的制造部門。英特爾已經將一些低端芯片的生產外包給臺積電。生產困境將迫使英特爾（至少暫時）把更多業務轉給臺灣，或許也會包括部分價格高昂的臺式機芯片和圖形芯片的制造業務。丹尼爾•勒布是一位激進的投資者，他持有英特爾相當大的股份。勒布在去年12月曾致函英特爾管理層，敦促該公司完全放棄工廠，全身心投入芯片設計，將芯片制造業務外包給臺積電等其他公司。這項提議理論上看起來很有吸引力：英特爾2020年的資本支出達到142億美元，幾乎全部用于其芯片工廠。與此同時，AMD在2009年剝離了其制造業務，如今的它正蓬勃發展。英偉達自1993年成立以來一直未涉及過芯片制造。
Finding a buyer could be tricky, says Linley Gwennap, a veteran chip-industry watcher, precisely because Intel’s factories are now behind the cutting edge. Most of the world’s chipmakers, which might be tempted by the fabs, are in Asia. Since chips are a front in America’s tech war with China, politicians may veto a sale to a non- American bidder.
資深芯片行業觀察家林利•格溫納普表示，正因為英特爾的芯片制造工廠目前落后于行業最前沿，尋找買家上可能會棘手。世界上大部分可能對微型芯片生產廠感興趣的芯片制造商都在亞洲。由于芯片是中美科技戰的前線交鋒領域，政客們可能會否決與非美國競標者達成芯片交易。
In any case, Mr Gelsinger has said he will ignore Mr Loeb’s suggestion. In January the new boss said that, although the firm may use more outsourcing for some products, he intends to pursue the hard, costly task of restoring Intel to its customary position at chipmaking’s leading edge. He also seems minded to pursue his predecessor’s strategy of diversifying into new products, including graphics-to-AI chips. “Our opportunity as a world-leading semiconductor manufacturer is greater than it’s ever been,” he wrote. The direction of travel, then, is not about to change. Intel’s shareholders will have to hope that Mr Gelsinger can at least get it back on the pace.
基爾辛格表示，無論如何，自己都會拒絕勒布的建議。今年1月，這位新老板表示，盡管英特爾可能會在某些產品上采用更多的外包服務，但他打算繼續完成艱巨而昂貴的任務，讓英特爾重回芯片制造業頂峰。他似乎也有意推行前任總裁提出的多元化戰略，開發更多新產品，包括圖形芯片和人工智能芯片。他寫道：“作為世界領先的半導體制造商，我們的機會比以往任何時候都大。”英特爾的前進方向是不會改變的。股東們只能抱有希望，基爾辛格至少能讓英特爾重回正軌。
譯文由可可原創，僅供學習交流使用，未經許可請勿轉載。
