Intel’s reported curiosity in buying SambaNova is just not new however it’s disturbing. SemiAccurate has recognized about this impending deal, and one other, for nearly a 12 months, and nothing about it’s a good factor.
SemiAccurate first heard about Intel’s curiosity in SambaNova and Rivos. the latter now going to Meta, shortly after Lip-Bu Tan was appointed CEO. Truly to be particular, it wasn’t Intel’s curiosity in, it was instantly instructed to us as Lip-Bu’s curiosity in promoting them to Intel. For now we gained’t go a lot into the Rivos facet, simply noting what was mentioned beforehand to us.
When Tan was appointed to CEO, SemiAccurate didn’t have a lot visibility into him, so we referred to as round. Throughout that point we had been instructed he was attempting to promote each SambaNova and Rivos to Intel. Honest sufficient, he was an investor/VC within the firms and whereas he would profit financially from the deal, if it was , sincere deal, win/win. There are methods to do issues like this above board and methods to not do it.
In any case the timing of the data we obtained mentioned the potential offers had been both recognized to the board a very long time in the past or a precondition of Lip-Bu’s hiring. Once more truthful sufficient, disclosure is an effective factor and if we knew of the curiosity, the board needed to know, proper? Intel’s board is thought for maintaining an in depth eye on issues and calling out huge monetary issues in a well timed and clear method. *COUGH* Sure we mentioned that with a straight face, nevertheless it was actually powerful. While you need the perfect in administration oversight, rent from Boeing. In the event you care, we’re smirking a bit after that one.
However once more, the board might have recognized about these offers through the CEO negotiating/hiring part. Due diligence might have been executed, the SambaNova merchandise might have been match, and once more, it might be a win/win. Given the issues SemiAccurate has documented concerning the Intel board, and a few that we haven’t publicly documented, you’ll be able to inform which approach we lean. As a teaser, see if you could find out how a lot Intel spent on papering over the Snow Ridge/10nm debacle with Nokia, Ericsson, and ZTE. Good luck, you’ll want it due to the <sarcasm>transparency mandated by the activist board.</sarcasm>
You may recall within the first sentence of this text I discussed that SemiAccurate discovered this deal disturbing. We used this time period due to two conversations that occurred through the aforementioned analysis into Lip-Bu Tan when he was introduced as CEO. Each got here from sources with inside data of the individuals and firms concerned, and each have deep deep technical experience. Whereas we will’t point out specifics with out outing our sources, we will state that we belief their perception. Additionally each conversations befell lengthy earlier than both the Rivos/Meta deal or the Intel/SambaNova offers had been even hinted at within the press so take this as you’ll.
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Disclosures: Charlie Demerjian and Stone Arch Networking Companies, Inc. don’t have any consulting relationships, funding relationships, or maintain any funding positions with any of the businesses talked about on this report.
