
Will Headless Intel Woo AMD’s Lisa Su? - baybal2
https://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1334179
======
slantyyz
> "Su’s CES keynote had the feel of a tipping point. A star was born. She even
> impressed people who have known her for many years."

That's ridiculous. It's as though EETimes is pretending there have been no
Ryzen keynotes in the past.

Her keynotes have been way better than the average hardware keynote for some
time now.

The thing that makes her better than many others is that she clearly knows and
understands the technical details of her company's products, and she comes off
as genuinely stoked about how great the products are.

Ever since the first keynote I saw of her for the early Ryzen announcements,
I've been making a point to watch any keynote she's done.

~~~
TheOperator
You have to have been sleeping to think Lisa Su only became a star at CES
2019.

Rumours of Intel acquiring AMD strike me as outlandish. I have doubts such a
merger would even be approved given the monopolies that Intel would gain.

~~~
murphy214
Monopoly? They would still be getting absolutely destroyed in the mobile
market?

~~~
okl
By whom? VIA?

~~~
jandrese
Qualcomm presumably.

But the FTC might view the mobile market as separate from the desktop market
and block a merger between Intel and AMD.

------
digitalzombie
No please.

I do not want a monopoly in x86.

Intel is very greedy in their cpu prices. Their consumer cpu never gave the
option of ecc memory and have gimp certain things. AMD was more flexible.
Having two company competing will be great for the consumers.

~~~
coffekaesque
If they could get away with it I think it would be worse than mobile games
monetization

[https://www.zdnet.com/article/facepalm-of-the-day-intel-
char...](https://www.zdnet.com/article/facepalm-of-the-day-intel-charges-
customers-50-to-unlock-cpu-features/)

[https://i.imgur.com/FTrP0gy.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/FTrP0gy.jpg)

~~~
jandrese
Hopefully the dismal failure of that scheme the first time around will
discourage them from trying it again.

------
ahartmetz
Ugh. The last thing CPU customers need is Intel without proper competition
again. What Su is doing at AMD seems almost superhuman.

~~~
jfk13
Perhaps the ARM world could still provide some competition.

~~~
jandrese
In the x86 market? That seems like a bit of a stretch for them.

------
okl
> Su, as of September 6, 2018, beneficially owns 2.43 million shares of AMD.
> This makes Su the firm’s largest shareholder.
> ([https://www.investopedia.com/insights/top-3-shareholders-
> amd...](https://www.investopedia.com/insights/top-3-shareholders-amd/))

Considering last year's AMD stock price development, I don't think she will
leave AMD for Intel unless Intel buys AMD. But:

> Kathleen Maher, vice president at Jon Peddie Research and the editor-in-
> chief of JPR's TechWatch Report, told us, “Obviously, the idea of Intel
> acquiring AMD is something that bubbles up from time to time, as does the
> idea of Nvidia acquiring AMD. But in that [latter] case, forget the FTC,
> Europe would have a cow (or whatever).”

~~~
baybal2
Yes, Su is holds half a billion bucks in AMD's stock.

This article piked my attention exactly because, if you can read in between
the lines, it asks what Su can do with Intel to improve her position.

See, as pointed out in the article, any excessively concessionary move is out
of the question. No Intel buying AMD, or poaching Su herself.

Nvidia may want Intel or AMD CPU

Intel may want Nvidia or AMD GPU

AMD's only interest is not to let Intel and Nvidia to combine their strong
sides. She can only want "an insurance policy" against that happening, more
like a castling manoeuvre.

She can take a stake in hypothesised join GPU unit with Intel, or x86 CPU unit
with Nvidia.

Intel would lose nothing in that arrangement, and AMD decreases their risk in
GPU.

Nvidia would lose nothing in the opposite arrangement, and AMD decreases their
risk in CPU.

------
dmos62
That's a pretty good title, in a literary sense.

~~~
stcredzero
The term "woo" has been used in such contexts as far back as I can remember.
It's quite apt, as it's an arrangement involving many variables, the
subculture of a group of people, and relatively high stakes. It's not only
applied to CEOs, but high value employees. (Of both genders, might I add. I
seem to recall that it's even been applied to actual princes at times.)

~~~
temetnosce
I think the OP wanted to say that it rhymed and had the same number of
syllables per line.

Will Headless Intel Woo

AMD's Lisa Su

~~~
dmos62
Also the surreal imagery. A decapitated figure courting a woman.

------
cmsj
Why would Dr Su leave a company that is on a massive upswing, for one that has
been stuck in a rut for years?

~~~
baldfat
Intel is multiple times larger. Also imagine how much bigger of a challenge it
is to turn around Intel technology growth` (Which is infinity more profitable)

2016 is the latest numbers I can find:

Employees Intel 106k AMD 9K

Sales Intel $59.3B AMD $4.3B

------
PaulHoule
Intel has been doing great as a business... In the sense of increasing margins
and making customers pay for every little thing. (Except for integrated
graphics, which are worthless, see

[https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-f-series-9th-gen-
pro...](https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-f-series-9th-gen-processors-
price,38434.html) )

Intel's "headlesless" is a consequence of harvesting for years.

~~~
josteink
I wouldn’t call it worthless. Unless you’re a gamer or AI/ML-geek they are
perfectly adequate for regular desktop needs like browsing the web or writing
code.

I certainly don’t long for a descrete GPU.

In fact this is the only thing I miss going to Ryzen. Now I’ll have to _buy_ a
GPU.

~~~
simlevesque
His link describes why they are worthless.

~~~
slantyyz
> His link describes why they are worthless.

His link only describes why they are worthless to the author of that article.
It hardly means that they are worthless to the market at large.

------
usefulcat
What, no non-competes for executives? (only partly sarcastic)

------
FlyingBears
AMD already licensed CPUs to another manufacturer in China. Any premium spent
to acquire AMD would not be worth it quite quickly.

~~~
okl
Buying AMD to get rid of their only remaining x86 competitor would be worth a
very high premium. I don't get what that licensing deal, with a manufacturer
that is only allowed to sell in China, has to do with it.

~~~
FlyingBears
Micron is in this situation now. It is under threat from UMC, which got ahold
of tech by way of MMT joint venture. There are three mainland competitors as
well with local government sponsorship. Just project this on CPU market.

------
candiodari
Can we please not use the term "WOO" just because AMD's CEO happens to be a
woman ? Just don't. It's not hard.

~~~
stcredzero
_Can we please not use the term "WOO" just because AMD's CEO happens to be a
woman ? Just don't. It's not hard._

Can we please not imagine there is sexism just because there is some stretchy
reference which can be made to marital traditions? Just don't. It's not hard.

"Woo" is often used in this very context, with both male and female employees,
and has been since as far back as I can remember. In fact, it's not just used
for CEOs, it's also used in the vernacular for anything involving finding
personnel, where the variables are complex and the stakes are relatively high.

