Chip giant Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) hosted its first-ever Intel Architecture (IA) Day on Dec. 11, 2018. At the event, the chip giant talked about a range of its technologies. Among the technologies discussed was the company's work in graphics processing units (GPUs), which are specialized processors that can render 3D graphics, as well as perform other parallel processing tasks more quickly and efficiently than traditional central processing units (CPUs). Intel has long developed GPUs, and for more than seven years, the company's mainstream notebook and desktop PC processors have incorporated GPU technology alongside its CPU technology. Those GPUs have never been particularly fast -- if you're a gamer, for example, you'd want to buy a more powerful stand-alone GPU from a company other than Intel -- but they're adequate for most basic computer functionality. ![]() Image source: Author. A little over a year ago, though, Intel announced that it planned to bring stand-alone GPUs, often referred to as "discrete GPUs," to the marketplace. Then, earlier this year, the chip giant told investors that its first discrete GPUs would come to market in 2020. At the Intel Architecture day, Intel didn't show off a discrete GPU prototype or offer any details about the discrete GPU products that it'll eventually bring to market. What it did, though, was show off its next-generation GPU architecture -- known as Gen. 11 -- and talk about its ambitions with the follow-on to Gen. 11, now branded as "Xe" instead of the decidedly less sexy "Gen. 12" moniker. While this might sound like stuff that should only be of interest to computer-chip nerds, investors should pay attention to -- and frankly, cheer -- Intel's progress and ambitions here. Broadening the TAM with XeDuring the Intel Architecture Day, Intel showed off a system powered by a future microprocessor with integrated Gen. 11 graphics running a game called Tekken 7 side-by-side against a system powered by the company's old Gen. 9 architecture. Unsurprisingly, the Gen. 11-based system was much smoother. Given that the Gen. 9 architecture is more than three years old now and Gen. 11-based products won't arrive on shelves until sometime in 2019, that's to be expected. What's probably more relevant to investors is that Intel made plain its ambitions with the upcoming Xe architecture. Unlike Gen. 11 and all other previous Intel GPU architectures, Xe won't be limited to riding shotgun with the company's CPU cores in a future microprocessor -- it's intended to span a much wider range of products. Check out the following slide from the event: ![]() Image source: Intel. There are a couple of things that investors, in particular, should notice. Intel apparently will be doing two variants of the Xe architecture -- one that's "client optimized" (client in this case refers to devices like PCs), and one that's "DC optimized" (DC is short for data center). You'll also see that Intel's ambitions with these two basic flavors of Xe are broad -- the company is aiming to use this architecture as the foundation for everything from future integrated graphics processors all the way to the most demanding data center/artificial-intelligence (AI) applications. You'll also note that the company is explicitly saying that it'll target the segments in-between those two extremes: midrange discrete GPUs, as well as "enthusiast" discrete GPUs. As an investor, you don't need to concern yourself with the nitty-gritty technical details. Instead, you should see this as the company taking the basic graphics technology that it already develops for its main PC processors and making incremental investments to extend the technology and proliferate it into a lot of other markets. Put another way, Intel is broadening both total addressable market (TAM), as well as its served addressable market (SAM) -- something that should be music to shareholders' ears. Intel still needs to executeWhile Intel is expanding its TAM by going after the major discrete GPU segments, the company still needs to execute. That'll mean building performance and price-competitive products for the market, establishing and strengthening a brand (or potentially brands), and building the right business relationships. However, if Intel's efforts in graphics ultimately prove successful, then the company should enjoy incremental revenue and, ultimately, profits from this push. Read More Why Investors Should Cheer Intel's Graphics Ambitions - Motley Fool : http://bit.ly/2EDInSs
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![]() Intel's channel organization is vowing increased communication and transparency with partners on issues such as the current CPU shortage, which has caused delays, price hikes and other challenges this year. In an exclusive interview with CRN, Todd Garrigues, director of partner sales programs at Intel, said better transparency about supply issues, new business opportunities and new technologies is one of the company's top priorities for partners heading into 2019. "We got some feedback — some critical feedback if I'm honest — from some partners through our advisory boards, and we're working hard to make sure we do better at that," he said. "The request, bluntly, was just to work harder at being transparent as close to real time as possible. And we took that to heart — a lot of internal discussions on how we enable that." [Related: Intel’s Roadmap and Future Products: 5 Things Partners Should Know] One of the challenges, Garrigues said, has been engaging with Intel's broader base of partners that the company may not have one-on-one relationships with. To mitigate the issue, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company is investing more in its relationships with distributors to boost Intel's signal. "One of the big priorities I've placed on this year is really working very close with our distribution partners who do serve that broad channel base more directly," said Jason Kimrey, Intel's U.S. channel chief. "I would tell you that we are having much more direct, open transparent dialogue with them to help them plan and help our mutual customers plan to roadmaps and plan around the supply." Kimrey, who is Intel's general manager of U.S. channel scale and partners, said the communication plan is part of Intel's increased investment in the channel, which began this year and will continue into 2019. The increased investment, he said, has been enabled by a reorganization this year of Intel's channel sales group that brought all its activity with distributors, solution providers, ODM partners and broader channel partners under one umbrella. "Since we aligned our channel organization under a single program this year, our investment in the channel has gone up," Kimrey said. "I think the recognition of the importance of the channel has gone up. I think you'll see that continue to play out next year." Intel's CPU shortage has lasted for several months now. The company has said that supply issues would not prevent Intel from reaching its 2018 revenue, but the shortage is having a greater impact on the broader PC market. Forecasts for laptop sales have shrunk, and some OEMs, including Acer and Asus, have reported lower-than-expected sales. Some channel partners have told CRN that Intel's shortage has resulted in delayed shipments and increased costs. Andrew Piland, chief operating officer at San Diego-based Datel Systems, said the supply issues have continued to impact his company. One of Datel's best-selling processors has been the eighth-generation Intel Core i5-8500, but it has been struggling to obtain enough stock for the systems Datel builds for customers. As a result, Datel has been resorting to the more expensive Core i5-8600, which has cut into the company's margins because Datel's customers were already locked into lower prices for orders. He said Intel's commitment to increased communication with partners sounds like great news, but only if they can pull it off and fix the supply issue. "I don't know if I will believe it until I see it," Piland said. "Ultimately actions speak louder than words. I have not seen a lot of action." Kent Tibbils, vice president of marketing at ASI, a Fremont, Calif.-based distributor, said Intel has been very upfront about the shortage issue this year, communicating with distributors about supply challenges as early as July. He said the company has also been open about the impact of tariffs. "They were out early about it, which was something they don't normally do," he said. Since publicly acknowledging the CPU shortage several months ago, Intel has announced new initiatives to improve chip supply, including an additional $1 billion invested in manufacturing capacity. Earlier this week, the company announced it would expand manufacturing sites in Oregon, Ireland and Israel starting next year, which will allow Intel to "respond more quickly to upticks in the market." Ann Kelleher, an Intel executive who was put in charge of manufacturing operations in October, said in this week's announcement that the expanded capacity will "reduce our time to increased supply by up to roughly 60 percent," adding that Intel will continue working with external foundries in some cases. "As we invent more products for a broader set of customers, you can expect us to be strategic about the application of Intel’s differentiated manufacturing capability and the selective use of foundries," she said. Read More Intel Vows Better Communication With Partners About CPU Shortage - CRN : http://bit.ly/2rPfAmpIntel accuses Qualcomm of trying to stifle competition through patent lawsuits - PC Gamer12/21/2018 It's safe to say that Intel won't be sending Qualcomm a holiday card this season. Instead, Intel executive vice president and general counsel Steve Rodgers railed against Qualcomm in a blog post over its patent litigation, and what Intel believes Qualcomm is truly trying to accomplish. "Qualcomm’s goal is not to vindicate its intellectual property rights, but rather to drive competition out of the market for premium modem chips, and to defend a business model that ultimately harms consumers," Rodgers wrote. What exactly is Intel's beef? The timely rant was likely motivated by Qualcomm's dispute with Apple over various patents, which recently resulted in some iPhone models being banned in Germany. There are multiple layers here, but one of the things that may have set Intel off is an accusation that Apple had stolen chip secrets and sold them to Intel. "Unlawful use of Qualcomm's valuable trade secrets to try to help a competitor catch up irreparably harms us and must not be allowed to continue," Qualcomm's general counsel Donald Rosenberg told CNBC in September. Part of what's interesting about Intel's blog post is that these things are usually settled behind the scenes. However, it appears there's now an effort to sway public opinion. "As we’ve noted before, in the last several years, Qualcomm has been fined nearly a billion dollars in China, $850 million in Korea, $1.2 billion by the European Commission and $773 million in Taiwan (later reduced in a settlement) for anti-competitive practices," Rodgers pointed out. "Meanwhile, the US Federal Trade Commission continues to pursue claims against Qualcomm in federal court for alleged violation of U.S. antitrust law." Naturally, Rodgers doesn't bring up any of Intel's own legal blemishes. As Fudzilla points out, the FTC filed a lawsuit against Intel in 2009 for allegedly trying to "hamstring competition." "Intel has engaged in a deliberate campaign to hamstring competitive threats to its monopoly," Richard Feinstein, director of the FTC's Bureau of Competition, said in a statement. "It's been running roughshod over the principles of fair play and the laws protecting competition on the merits. The commission's action today seeks to remedy the damage that Intel has done to competition, innovation, and, ultimately, the American consumer." What Rodgers did say, however, is that he hopes the actions by the FTC and other global authorities will "help preserve competition," especially as it relates to 5G wireless technology. If nothing else, Intel's blog post underscores how important the company sees the emergence of 5G, and what's at stake. "The world benefits from competition in the wireless technology market. We hope that it flourishes," Rodgers wrote. Read More Intel accuses Qualcomm of trying to ‘stifle competition’ through patent lawsuits - PC Gamer : http://bit.ly/2Lw79FRIntel's (INTC) shareholders have had a truly challenging first half of 2018. Furthermore, in the highly competitive space in which Intel finds itself, it has had to operate most of 2018 without a permanent CEO. Nevertheless, in spite of the aggressive sell-off in tech stocks over the past few months, Intel's share price has held up; a telling sign which I argue highlights that investors are finding Intel's valuation appealing -- as do I. Intel's Opportunity? Strong and Highly Profitable GrowthOver the past five years, we have seen Intel's data-centric business grow at strong rates. As of Q3 2018, Intel's data-centric business now accounts for more than 45% of total revenue. ![]() However, two different insights are revealed in the table. Firstly, interestingly, in spite of critics arguing that Intel's PC-centric business is facing terminal decline and is a drag on the overall business, that's not quite accurate. Admittedly, the PC-centric business has been underperforming Intel's data-centric business, but as we can see in the above table, it is still delivering solid double-digit percentage growth. Secondly, Intel's PC-centric business focused on its flagship processors offers Intel a very strong and reliable source of cash and diversification separate from its newer data-centric business. Intel's data-centric business, which includes a platform for compute, storage and network, has a total addressable market that is expected to cross $70 billion by 2022. Presently, Intel commands roughly 40% market share of this space. Next, after Intel has raised its full year '18 revenue twice during the past few quarters, I've depicted Intel's recent growth trajectory: ![]() As you can see, the pace of growth is at odds with what one would expect from simply looking at Intel's price chart, which shows the stock down slightly for the year. Why Intel's Data-Centric Business Is So Important![]() As we can see from the data above, Intel's data-centric business is extraordinarily profitable. Having said that, analysts and investors are presently concerned over near-term inventory adjustments in the data center markets, fearing that this will create headwinds there. And while this may be somewhat true, I would urge readers to think longer-term, and understand that the cloud sector is still nascent and that while we may face a temporary glut, Intel clearly commands strong pricing power with its end customers. ValuationUltimately, the key driver of the story is its valuation. I recently argued on TheStreet that Intel's competitor, AMD (AMD) , presently trades on a 400x free cash multiple, implying very strong appetite amongst investors for this sector. Moreover, despite Nvidia (NVDA) falling from grace in the past two months, it still trades for more than 20x free cash flow. One could argue, though, that Nvidia's business model is the superior business model among the chip sector peers, and that Nvidia is currently fairly valued relative to its fundamental prospects. On the other hand, Intel, with its strong pricing power and dominant market share, trades for less than 14x free cash flow. Which I argue is evidently undervalued, particularly when we consider that its growth rate is hovering around 20%. Share RepurchasesFurther evidence that Intel believes itself to be undervalued, comes from the fact, that during the turbulent and transitory period in which Intel found itself in 2018, Intel did not slow down with its share repurchases. On the contrary, during the first nine months of the year Intel moved swiftly and resolutely to return $8.5 billion to shareholders via share repurchases. That's 130% more than during the same period a year ago. Furthermore, if we look back and compare Intel's original guidance from January 2018, which was for FY 2018 non-GAAP earnings per share of $3.55, with the most recently upwards revised guidance in Q3 2018 of $4.53 in EPS, this means that the guidance has improved by an impressive 28% since the start of the year. But if we compare the share price today with January when the original guidance was announced, Intel's share price is actually lower today by 5%. The TakeawayIntel continues to have solid top-line growth, as well as a strong share repurchase program. Thus, it is my strong contention that these, together with Intel's cheap valuation, points to Intel's downside being largely limited. And if you protect the downside, what's left is only upside potential. Save 66% with our '12 Days of Holiday Deals' Sale. Join Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS club for investors and get our best deal of the year. Click here for details or to sign up. Read More Why Intel's Share Price Has Held Up -- and Has Room to Rise in 2019 - TheStreet Tech : http://bit.ly/2V31JpW
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![]() There are rumors, sparked in part by Intel’s manufacturing announcement yesterday, that Santa Clara is preparing to exit the custom manufacturing business. DigiTimes, granted, isn’t known for being a solid single source in every instance, but the points made in the article not only echo what’s been obvious in the larger semiconductor industry, but they also reflect the general state of Intel’s roadmap as well. LG was originally announced as a major Intel 10nm customer, but obviously, the company wasn’t going to ship customer hardware before it had the node online for its own use. DigiTimes sources claim that Intel’s manufacturing prices are higher than those offered by TSMC and Samsung, and that the ongoing 10nm delay has tightened supply of 14nm and 22nm products as well. To date, the only prominent win for Intel’s custom manufacturing — Altera — became its subsidiary. That’s not to say the acquisition was the wrong move for Intel, but buying your customers isn’t exactly the classic foundry model. In our IBM story, we noted that Samsung hasn’t earned many foundry customers for its 7nm node, at least not major wins that it’s publicly announced. DigiTimes remarks on this as well, stating:
Now, given that Samsung also functions as an IDM, it’s not quite the same disaster as it would be for TSMC to lack leading-edge customers, and its agreement with IBM give it a prominent win — but given that TSMC’s 7nm node is reportedly running below capacity in 1H 2019, it seems foundries may be having trouble filling their lines to begin with. With Intel beginning to roll out 10nm at the tail end of 2019, it’s not clear the company has the fab space to spare for foundry customers. It’s also not clear if it has potential customers in the first place. We wouldn’t expect much downside to Intel if the company does close down its client foundry, if only because it’s far from clear the project ever brought in much business to start with. And keep this in mind as well: Given that Intel is struggling to deal with booming demand for its server products in the first place, there’s precious little reason for the company to dedicate fab space to lower margin customers when it could make more money building chips for itself. Now Read:
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![]() Intel has been on something of a tear of late. After its Architecture Day earlier this month, where the company debuted its plans for new CPUs, GPUs, 3D interconnects, and overall foundry strategy, it’s now announcing a new set of manufacturing expansions intended to serve growing product markets. According to Ann B. Kelleher, senior vice president and general manager of manufacturing and operations at Intel Corporation, Intel will expand its manufacturing capabilities in pursuit of a total addressable market for silicon it estimates at $300B. This shift is being pitched as part of Intel’s transformation from a PC-centric company to a data-centric company. While such terms might seem like little more than marketing, there’s real cash behind the shift. The combined impact of AI, machine learning, IoT, IIoT (industrial Internet of Things), self-driving vehicles, and 5G connectivity make the conventional PC industry look tiny. Long term, these markets could even outstrip whatever slice of mobile revenue that Intel might have claimed a half-decade back. Having missed in that instance, the company is determined not to miss again. In addition to the 14nm capacity shifts the company has already undertaken this year, Intel will continue its scale-out work in Fab 42, in preparation for 7nm production at that facility. It plans to perform future Optane development at its Rio Rancho facility in New Mexico, along with unspecified plans for next-generation memory and storage technologies. While Kelleher doesn’t mention Optane specifically, the Albuquerque Journal reported in September that Intel was hiring for Optane production at the Rio Rancho facility following its split with Micron. In addition to this, Intel is now in the planning phase of expected expansions in Oregon, Ireland, and Israel, with construction expected to begin in 2019. Expanding its existing fab space could easily be cheaper than planning to build a new facility from scratch; fab plants aren’t cheap to build and they don’t build quickly, either. But interestingly, Intel isn’t planning to stop collaborating with other foundries, either. Kelleher writes:
This could be a sign of a long-term strategy shift. It’s true, Intel has used client foundries from time to time over the years. If it simply taps these relationships for manufacturing relatively small amounts of hardware, equipment that’s adjacent to its primary product lines (like chipsets), or for silicon it acquired that was previously built at a different foundry, it wouldn’t be much of a change from what Intel does already. If, on the other hand, Intel were to decide to shift some of its lower-margin manufacturing to client foundries to improve its own margins and did so on an ongoing basis, it would represent a shift from the company’s typical manufacturing strategy. Kelleher seems to imply that Intel might be contemplating this kind of change. If it does, we’d definitely expect Santa Clara to keep its high-end parts and processes for itself, farming out work on parts whose margins are less important to the corporate bottom line. Now Read:
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![]() Intel has been on something of a tear of late. After its Architecture Day earlier this month, where the company debuted its plans for new CPUs, GPUs, 3D interconnects, and overall foundry strategy, it’s now announcing a new set of manufacturing expansions intended to serve growing product markets. According to Ann B. Kelleher, senior vice president and general manager of manufacturing and operations at Intel Corporation, Intel will expand its manufacturing capabilities in pursuit of a total addressable market for silicon it estimates at $300B. This shift is being pitched as part of Intel’s transformation from a PC-centric company to a data-centric company. While such terms might seem like little more than marketing, there’s real cash behind the shift. The combined impact of AI, machine learning, IoT, IIoT (industrial Internet of Things), self-driving vehicles, and 5G connectivity make the conventional PC industry look tiny. Long term, these markets could even outstrip whatever slice of mobile revenue that Intel might have claimed a half-decade back. Having missed in that instance, the company is determined not to miss again. In addition to the 14nm capacity shifts the company has already undertaken this year, Intel will continue its scale-out work in Fab 42, in preparation for 7nm production at that facility. It plans to perform future Optane development at its Rio Rancho facility in New Mexico, along with unspecified plans for next-generation memory and storage technologies. While Kelleher doesn’t mention Optane specifically, the Albuquerque Journal reported in September that Intel was hiring for Optane production at the Rio Rancho facility following its split with Micron. In addition to this, Intel is now in the planning phase of expected expansions in Oregon, Ireland, and Israel, with construction expected to begin in 2019. Expanding its existing fab space could easily be cheaper than planning to build a new facility from scratch; fab plants aren’t cheap to build and they don’t build quickly, either. But interestingly, Intel isn’t planning to stop collaborating with other foundries, either. Kelleher writes:
This could be a sign of a long-term strategy shift. It’s true, Intel has used client foundries from time to time over the years. If it simply taps these relationships for manufacturing relatively small amounts of hardware, equipment that’s adjacent to its primary product lines (like chipsets), or for silicon it acquired that was previously built at a different foundry, it wouldn’t be much of a change from what Intel does already. If, on the other hand, Intel were to decide to shift some of its lower-margin manufacturing to client foundries to improve its own margins and did so on an ongoing basis, it would represent a shift from the company’s typical manufacturing strategy. Kelleher seems to imply that Intel might be contemplating this kind of change. If it does, we’d definitely expect Santa Clara to keep its high-end parts and processes for itself, farming out work on parts whose margins are less important to the corporate bottom line. Now Read: Chip giant Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) isn't shy about giving the free cash flow it generates back to its shareholders, in the form of quarterly dividend payments and share repurchases. Let's consider the key things current and potential investors in the chip giant should know about the company's dividend today, as well as what could be in store for the dividend. ![]() Image source: Intel. How much is Intel's dividend?As of this writing, Intel's quarterly dividend is $0.30 per share, good for $1.20 per share on an annual basis. The raw dividend payment in itself isn't terribly helpful without knowing what percentage of the company's share price that dividend is good for -- a metric known as dividend yield. Intel's shares recently closed at $47.86, and at that price the $1.20-per-share dividend is good for a dividend yield of just under 2.51%. Put another way, if you were to go buy a share of Intel stock for that price and if Intel kept paying its current dividend for as long as you held it, you'd get back 2.51% of your initial investment each year. In an ideal world, a company would steadily increase its dividend every year, meaning that as the dividend grows, the yield rate based on an investor's original purchase price goes up. Imagine, for example, that Intel's annual dividend payments rise to $2.00 per share. An investor who bought at $47.86 and held would see his or her dividend yield grow to almost 4.2%. How often does Intel increase its dividend?Since 2013, Intel has done a good job of giving its shareholders annual dividend increases. But its track record isn't perfect. Intel's quarterly payout remained parked at $0.225 for a stunning 10 quarters between the dividend declared on July 25, 2012, and the one on Sept. 11, 2014. Why? Because after Intel turned in a record year in 2011, the company struggled in 2012 and 2013, posting two straight years of revenue and net income declines thanks to a weak PC market. In 2014, the company returned to growth, so it's little surprise the company felt it could start raising its dividend again. From a financial perspective, 2018 is going quite well for the chip giant. The company's most recent guidance calls for revenue to hit $71.2 billion, up from $62.8 billion in 2017; non-GAAP earnings per share to reach $4.52, up from $3.46; and for free cash flow to climb to a healthy $15.5 billion, up from $10.33 billion in 2017 and the highest it's ever been for the chipmaker. INTC Free Cash Flow (Annual) data by YCharts So as I argued back in late October, Intel investors should expect a healthy dividend increase the next time the company updates its dividend, which should be in early calendar year 2019. Ashraf Eassa has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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Courtside seats at an NBA game are usually the province of team owners, celebrities like Drake (Toronto Raptors), and tech executives such as Apple ’s (AAPL) Eddy Cue (Golden State Warriors). Intel and Turner Sports have an app—and hardware—for that. It’s part of a full-court press by some of tech’s biggest players to get a piece of the fledgling market for live sporting events and an emerging new viewing audience weaned on 3-D games, 360-degree viewing angles, mixed media, and social media. Intel (INTC), the NBA and Turner Sports are broadcasting games in virtual reality for a second straight season, but this year includes new 4K-resolution cameras, more games (10 regular-season games, starting Dec. 27 with Boston at Houston, plus All-Star Game weekend festivities, playoff games, and the Eastern Conference Finals), and more real-time data in the form of game and shot clocks, and team and player stats. An NBA on TNT VR app, powered by Intel True VR cameras and head-mounted gear from Samsung Electronics (Korea: 005930) and Facebook ’s (FB) Oculus GO, gives fans the option of switching between vantage points and cueing up instant replays on demand. It’s also a high-profile showcase for what Intel’s technology can do, as it and other companies pursue a virtual reality market expected to skyrocket to $19 billion by 2020 from $2.2 billion in 2017, according to Statista. The experience approximates watching a videogame from a digital device rather than a two-dimensional TV screen, as consumers have for more than 50 years, says Howard Wright, a former NBA player who is appointed vice president of global business development for the Intel Sports Group at Intel Capital, the chip maker’s investment arm. Intel has also broadcast games in VR for Major League Baseball, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, and Spain’s LaLiga soccer league. In capturing the event in 3-D, presenting it from multiple camera angles, and stitching captured images in real-time, Intel has taken an early lead in a blooming media landscape that should only get better with the coming of 5G networks and better battery technology, say mixed media experts. “Having the ability to watch sports in VR is almost inevitable,” Tony Parisi, head of AR/VR brand solutions at 3-D real-time engine company Unity Technologies, told Barron’s in an email. “You’re talking about giving a viewer the same type of immersive experience they’d have if they were courtside.” Unity wasn’t involved in the app or hardware, but Parisi has seen videos of the app in use. Cathy Hackl, a futurist at You Are Here Labs, a VR/AR company, calls the shift to VR broadcasts of sports events “immersive spectating” that is particularly appealing to under-30 viewers weaned on video games with multiple viewing angles and visually-rich data. She has viewed basketball games on NextVR and soccer matches on Oculus Venues, but not Intel’s NBA app. “It’s an extension of the gaming experience,” she told Barron’s in a phone interview. Social media companies have taken note. Facebook, Amazon.com (AMZN), and Twitter (TWTR) are among those bidding for live sporting events in search of a younger demographic and more advertising. Sports attendees, particularly millennials, are eagerly adopting the technology as augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality permeate commerce and entertainment. PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates sports-related advertising will help lead an ad revenue surge to $127.4 billion in the U.S. in 2022 from $88 billion in 2017. Write to Jon Swartz at [email protected] ![]() Intel this week reiterated plans to expand its production capacities in a bid to more quickly respond to increased demand. In the coming years the company intends to increase production of chips at three existing facilities and outfit a new fab with DUV and EUV tools. In addition, the company said it will develop its next-gen storage and memory technology at its manufacturing plant in New Mexico. Back in 2017, Intel originally announced its intentions to finally furnish its Fab 42 in Arizona, which had been on hold for several years. The production facility will be used to make chips using Intel’s 7 nm manufacturing technology, which relies on DUV and EUV lithography tools. Intel has yet to announce exactly when it plans to start using this fabrication technology, but this week it said that it was making good progress in equipping the fab. In addition, Intel intends to expand its manufacturing facilities in Oregon, Ireland, and Israel. The company has been discussing expansions of its fabs in Ireland as well as Israel for quite some time now, so it looks like the company will finally start these expansions in 2019. Meanwhile, the adding fab space to its Oregon plant – home to the company's development fabs – was unexpected and the company yet has to detail these plans. Intel expects that the expansion of its production facilities will enable it to more quickly respond to demand increases. This faster response time will translate into higher sales, but will also increase Intel’s factory depreciation and OpEx costs. In addition to expanding its own manufacturing capacities, Intel will also continue using third-party foundry services to make its various products when it makes business sense, including (but not limited to) entry-level SoCs or chipsets. The company collaborated with TSMC and other partners in the past, so the announcement just confirms that the company will continue to do so in the future even after it expands its own capacities, if third-party foundries offer the right technologies for particular applications. Last but not least, Intel also made an announcement regarding the future of its storage and memory technology, which is being moved exclusively inside Intel after the company announced its intention to wind-down its long-standing joint development initiative with Micron. The chip giant will develop the tech at its manufacturing facility in New Mexico after it leaves IMFT plant in the coming quarters. Related Reading:
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