Intel

• Date Founded: 1968
• Industry: Information Technology
• Corporate headquarters: Santa Clara, California
• Type: Public

Overview

Intel Corporation is the world's largest semiconductor manufacturer, controlling about 80 percent of the market for the microprocessors that power a wide variety of popular desktop and laptop computers, server computers, and tablets. Throughout its history, Intel has been one of the tech industry's most dominant hardware manufacturers. In addition to microprocessors, Intel also produces chips for smartphones and tablets and embedded semiconductors for the industrial, medical, and automotive markets. In recognition of the changing landscape of the computer market in the twenty-first century, the company began producing chips for the data centers that facilitate cloud computing.

Intel is divided into separate operating segments, including the Client Computing Group (CCG), Data Center and AI (DCAI), Network and Edge (NEX), Intel Foundry, Altera, an Intel Company (formerly Intel’s Programmable Solutions Group), Mobileye (formerly Intel's Security Group), and Other. Intel often refers to CCG, DCAI, and NEX as its Intel Products group, while Altera, Mobileye, and Other are sometimes collectively referred to as All Other.

The CCG segment oversees all products made for the client computing market, such as those designed for desktop computers, tablets, and smartphones. The DCAI segment makes Intel's chips for the enterprise, cloud, and communication infrastructure markets. It also encompasses all of Intel's artificial intelligence (AI) endeavors. The NEX segment focuses on chips created for various connected devices, including those designed for retail, transportation, industrial, video, buildings, smart cities, and other markets. The Altera segment is geared toward manufacturing the NAND flash memory used in many solid-state drives. The ISG segment is responsible for the company's various security software products. The Intel Company segment produces programmable semiconductors and other related products. In the 2020s, the company's technology focus was on artificial intelligence, 5G network transformation, and the rise of intelligent edge.

History

Intel was the creation of Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, a pair of engineers who previously founded Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation with six others in 1957. While Moore served as the head of Fairchild's research and development department, Noyce distinguished himself as the co-inventor of the silicon integrated circuit. In 1968, Noyce and Moore decided to leave Fairchild in favor of starting their own company with $2.5 million in funding acquired through famed venture capitalist Arthur Rock. Although they initially called their company N M Electronics, the two eventually settled on Intel, which was short for "integrated electronics."

From the outset, Intel's primary aim was the manufacture of large-scale integrated semiconductor memories. Up to that point, magnetic core memories were the computer standard. While semiconductor memories were faster and more efficient than magnetic core memories, they were also comparatively expensive. Nevertheless, Noyce and Moore observed that costs were dropping and correctly predicted that semiconductor memories would start replacing magnetic core memories in the near future. Intel commenced operations with the production of a high-speed random access memory (RAM) chip known as the 3101 Schottky bipolar memory. This was soon followed by the 1101 metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) chip in 1969. A year later, Intel achieved its first real success with the introduction of the 1103 dynamic RAM (DRAM) chip, which was the first chip of its kind large enough to offer considerable memory space. With the debut of the 1103, Intel successfully paved the way for the widespread replacement of magnetic core memories with semiconductor memories.

Bolstered by the 1103 DRAM chip's success, Intel became a publicly traded company in 1971. Around the same time, the company also introduced the erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM) chip. The EPROM chip was an immediate hit and remained the company's most successful product for more than a decade. Intel's most revolutionary early product, however, was the Intel 4004 microprocessor. The world's first single-chip microprocessor, the 4004 offered a significant amount of processing power at a fraction of the size of traditional central processing units (CPUs). The 4004's success led Intel to begin focusing most of its attention on developing new microprocessors in the years that followed. Through the remainder of the 1970s, Intel produced a whole line of different microprocessors. Eventually, its impressive products caught the attention of tech industry giant IBM. In 1980, IBM powered the first personal computer with one of Intel's microprocessors. This decision effectively put Intel on the map as a major player in the tech landscape and helped the company reach new heights. Intel's success continued into the 1990s with the debut of its Pentium line of microprocessors. Although the company experienced something of a decline as the demand for microprocessors began to wane around the turn of the twenty-first century, Intel eventually rebounded by exploring new ventures and executing many key mergers and acquisitions in the 2000s and 2010s. Chief among these was its 2010 purchase of the computer security technology company McAfee for $7.7 billion, which Intel transitioned into a separate company in 2016. In 2017, the company acquired Mobileye for $15 billion, which Intel spun into a separate company in 2022. In the early and mid-2020s, the company acquired many businesses to improve its semiconductor chip business segment and artificial intelligence (AI) everywhere strategy. These included Silicon Mobility, Codeplay Software, Ananki, Siru Innovations, and Granulate.

The company boasted its sustainability activities in 2021, including the use of 80 percent green power globally and the conservation of 9.3 billion gallons of water. Intel also received a variety of awards in the 2020s, including Forbes Best Employers for Diversity, Barron’s 100 Most Sustainable Companies, and the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index.

Following the global shortage of semiconductor chips due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the early 2020s, the US government began plans to reduce reliance on foreign chip production. In 2022, President Joe Biden signed the US CHIPS and Science Act into law, often called the CHIPS Act. Intel, one of the strongest corporate advocates for the legislation, received funding from the CHIPS Act to support domestic semiconductor manufacturing, research, and development. In December 2024, Intel signed an agreement with the US Department of Commerce for up to $7.86 billion in funding to support this initiative. However, Intel’s competitors TSMC, Samsung, and Micron also sought funds, making the subsidies competitive.

Impact

Over time, Intel became one of the most influential tech companies in history. Through its development of the microprocessor and other important advances, Intel completely changed the course of modern computing's evolution. The introduction of the microprocessor heralded the beginning of a new era in computing, effectively making personal computers a realistic possibility and setting the stage for the dramatic technological revolution that took place during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. In the process, Intel became the world's largest chip maker and one of the most recognizable tech industry brands. Much of Intel's remarkable brand recognition is a product of the company's strategic effort to market itself directly to consumers instead of manufacturers. In the late 1980s, it became apparent that manufacturers were growing increasingly reluctant to incorporate the most advanced, cutting-edge microprocessors in their machines. As this problem mounted, executives at Intel decided to drive interest in their products by targeting consumers directly. In the 1990s, this led to a series of successful marketing campaigns featuring the company's now-famous swirl logo and the signature five-note song mark commonly referred to as the "Intel bong." Along with running its own television advertisements, Intel also introduced a program through which it subsidized ads for computer manufacturers that agreed to display an "Intel Inside" label on their products. With these and other similar efforts, Intel successfully established itself as an easily recognizable tech brand that consumers immediately identified with quality and excellence. In fact, the global brand consultancy group Interbrand determined that Intel was the world's nineteenth most valuable brand in 2022.

Bibliography

Bellis, Mary. "Intel History." Thought Co., 11 Feb. 2019, www.thoughtco.com/intel-history-1991923. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.

"Exploring Intel's History." Intel, timeline.intel.com. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.

"Intel, Biden-Harris Administration Finalize $7.86 Billion Funding Award under US CHIPS Act." Intel, 26 Nov. 2024, www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/newsroom/news/intel-chips-act.html. Accessed 20 Jan. 2025.

"Intel Company Overview and Future of Technology." Intel, www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/company-overview/company-overview.html. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.

"Intel Corporation." SuccessStory, successstory.com/companies/intel-corporation. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.

"Intel Corp." Reuters, www.reuters.com/markets/companies/INTC.OQ. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.

"Intel." Crunchbase, www.crunchbase.com/organization/intel. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.

"Intel Outlines Financial Framework for Foundry Business, Sets Path to Margin Expansion." Intel, 2 Apr. 2024, www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/newsroom/news/intel-outlines-new-financial-reporting-structure.html. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.

Rouse, Margaret. "Intel." TechTarget, 13 Apr. 2017, whatis.techtarget.com/definition/Intel. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.

Tonner, Andrew. "9 Things You Didn't Know about Intel Corporation." Motley Fool, 28 June 2017, www.fool.com/investing/2017/06/28/9-things-you-didnt-know-about-intel-corporation.aspx. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.