[dralley]

It's worth mentioning that IIRC the team responsible for the Arc GPU drivers was located in Russia, and after the invasion of Ukraine they had to deal with relocating the entire team to the EU and lost several engineers in the process. The drivers were the primary reason for the absolute failure of Arc.

Intel deserves a lot of blame but they also got hit by some really shit circumstances outside of their control.

[mnau]

He was CEO. Chief executing officer. It's literally his job to execute, i.e. fix that stuff/ensure it doesn't happen. Get them out of Russia, poach new devs, have a backup team, delay the product (i.e. no HVM until good drivers are in sight). That's literally his job.

This only reinforces my previous point. He had good ideas, but couldn't execute.

[rvba]

Executive, not executing.

On a side note getting people in russia write your drivers sounds a bit insane. Yea lower cost and probably ok quality, but the risks...

[jpadkins]

CEO stands for Chief Executive Officer.

a chief executive officer, the highest-ranking person in a company or other institution, ultimately responsible for making managerial decisions.

Maybe you mean COO?

[Wytwwww]

> shit circumstances outside of their control.

They chose to outsource the development of their core products to a country like Russia to save costs. How was that outside of their control? It's not like it was the most stable or reliable country to do business in even before 2022...

[kgeist]

Russia is reliable when it comes to software engineering. I've met a few guys from Intel Russia, bright folks. The politics, though...

[Wytwwww]

Individual Russian software developers might be reliable but that's hardly the point. They should've just moved them to US or even Germany or something like that if they were serious about entering the GPU market, though...

e.g. There are plenty of talented engineers in China as well but it would be severely idiotic for any western company to move their core R&D there. Same applied to Russia.

[kgeist]

Well, Intel Russia opened in 2000 back when USA and Russia were on good terms, and Putin was relatively unknown. Sure it was a mistake in hindsight...

[Wytwwww]

I doubt they began working on ARC/XE drivers back in 2000. If the entire driver team being in Russia (i.e. Intel trying to save money) was truly the main reason why ARC failed on launch they really only have themselves to blame...

[aguaviva]

Not just in hindsight -- but by 2011 it was clear to anyone paying attention where Russia was heading (if not to war, then certainly to a long-term dictatorship). Anyone who failed to see the signs, or chose to intellectualize past them - did so willingly.

[lucianbr]

I think if you're CEO of Intel, some foresight might be in order. Or else the ability to find a solution fast when things turn impredictibly sour. What did he get a $16mil salary for?

[kergonath]

It had been obvious for quite a while even before 2022. There were the Chechen wars, and Georgia in 2008, and Crimea in 2014. All the journalists and opposition politicians killed over the years, and the constant concentration of power in the hands of Putin. The Ukraine invasion was difficult to predict, but Russia was a dangerous place long before that. It’s a CEO’s job to have a strategic vision, there must have been contingency plans.

[kgeist]

Wars involving the US in the 21st century:

  War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
  US intervention in Yemen (2002–present)
  Iraq War (2003–2011)
  US intervention in the War in North-West Pakistan (2004–2018)
  Second US Intervention in the Somali Civil War (2007–present)
  Operation Ocean Shield (2009–2016)
  Intervention in Libya (2011)
  Operation Observant Compass (2011–2017)
  US military intervention in Niger (2013–2024)
  US-led intervention in Iraq (2014–2021)
  US intervention in the Syrian civil war (2014–present)
  US intervention in Libya (2015–2019)
  Operation Prosperity Guardian (2023–present)

Wars involving Russia in the 21st century:

  Second Chechen War (1999–2009)
  Russo-Georgian War (2008)
  Russo-Ukrainian War (2014–present)
  Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War (2015–present)
  Central African Republic Civil War (2018–present)
  Mali War (2021–present)
  Jihadist insurgency in Burkina Faso (2024–present)