NVIDIA Knocks Intel off the Dow Jones Industrial Average
After 25 years the mighty Intel has fallen
After a 25-year run, Intel is being removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It will be replaced with graphics card manufacturer NVIDIA. Over the past year, Intel’s stock has fallen over 50%, causing its market value to fall under $100 billion for the first time in 30 years. Analysts expect Intel to post its first annual net loss since 1986. This is mainly due to new market competition, Intel has fallen behind in CPU manufacturing technology to TSMC. (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company)
CPUs are measured by transistor size in nanometers (nm), which are billions of a meter. So 5nm is 5 billionths of a meter. TSMC has been shipping CPUs using a 3nm process since 2022, while Intel only began shipping 3nm chips in 2024. These CPUs were for mobile devices only, Intel contracted TSMC to make the rest of their 3nm CPUs.
On top of that, Intel faced major stability issues with their 13 and 14th-generation desktop processors. Initially blamed on their partners, Intel eventually found a firmware bug in the CPUs, causing them to literally cook themselves over time. Once damaged, a CPU cannot be repaired.
NVIDIA meanwhile, has skyrocketed to a $3.32 trillion valuation, making it the second most valuable company in the world. NVIDIA manufactures GPUs or graphics cards for PCs and servers that train AI models such as ChatGPT. Their GPUs are the fastest (and most expensive) on the market. Based on pricing for their last generation, ONE B200, their new flagship AI accelerator is expected to sell for between $25,000 to $40,000.
More information about Intel's fall can be found here:
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2024/11/nvidia-ousts-intel-from-dow-jones-index-after-25-year-run/#gsc.tab=0
https://www.axios.com/2024/11/04/nvidia-stock-dow-jones-intel-ai