[baq]

not quite true regarding the focus - you aren't building a $50B+ company when you don't have focus, it's just that their core compentency isn't fashionable right now. they can't grow in the markets they're in because they either own them completely or were driven out, so they're trying different ones (pivoting, if that's applicable to mature companies).

[marcosdumay]

They had a presence on the currently faster growing market (mobile), but they decided to sell it a while ago because it wasn't trendy and margins were smaller.

Now they are pivoting everywhere, but theirs is the only market with sufficient margins. And the perspective is that their margins will shrink because of competition and software emulation (that they are keeping into control by patent trolling).

[rasz]

Intel also liquidated all ram fabs in the eighties, very costly process. Almost less than a year after last fab closed ram prices skyrocketed letting Japanese manufacturers grow strong.

[markenstein]

Intel had the problem of growing their market after their monopoly on 386-compatible processors in the late 80s, which AMD only caught up with their Am386 like 4 years later. Besides their shenanigans to rebate PC manufacturers for not using AMD processors, they did create the IAL—Intel Architecture Labs, which created and gave royalty-free technologies like PCI, AGP, USB, and PCI Express to move the industry forward so that it can grow. That was pretty innovative, at a time where getting a soundcard seemed more practical than choosing a faster processor.