Intel’s reported interest in purchasing SambaNova is not new but it is disturbing. SemiAccurate has known about this impending deal, and another, for almost a year, and nothing about it is a good thing.
SemiAccurate first heard about Intel’s interest in SambaNova and Rivos. the latter now going to Meta, shortly after Lip-Bu Tan was appointed CEO. Actually to be specific, it wasn’t Intel’s interest in, it was directly told to us as Lip-Bu’s interest in selling them to Intel. For now we won’t go much into the Rivos side, just noting what was said previously to us.
When Tan was appointed to CEO, SemiAccurate didn’t have much visibility into him, so we called around. During that time we were told he was trying to sell both SambaNova and Rivos to Intel. Fair enough, he was an investor/VC in the companies and while he would benefit financially from the deal, if it was a good, honest deal, win/win. There are ways to do things like this above board and ways not to do it.
In any case the timing of the information we got said the possible deals were either known to the board a long time ago or a precondition of Lip-Bu’s hiring. Again fair enough, disclosure is a good thing and if we knew of the interest, the board had to know, right? Intel’s board is known for keeping a close eye on things and calling out massive financial problems in a timely and transparent manner. *COUGH* Yes we said that with a straight face, but it was really tough. When you want the best in management oversight, hire from Boeing. If you care, we are smirking a bit after that one.
But again, the board could have known about these deals during the CEO negotiating/hiring phase. Due diligence could have been done, the SambaNova products could have been a good fit, and again, it could be a win/win. Given the things SemiAccurate has documented about the Intel board, and some that we haven’t publicly documented, you can tell which way we lean. As a teaser, see if you can find out how much Intel spent on papering over the Snow Ridge/10nm debacle with Nokia, Ericsson, and ZTE. Good luck, you’ll need it because of the
You might recall in the first sentence of this article I mentioned that SemiAccurate found this deal disturbing. We used this term because of two conversations that occurred during the aforementioned research into Lip-Bu Tan when he was announced as CEO. Both came from sources with inside knowledge of the people and companies involved, and both have deep deep technical expertise. While we can’t mention specifics without outing our sources, we can state that we trust their insight. Also both conversations took place long before either the Rivos/Meta deal or the Intel/SambaNova deals were even hinted at in the press so take this as you will.
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Disclosures: Charlie Demerjian and Stone Arch Networking Services, Inc. have no consulting relationships, investment relationships, or hold any investment positions with any of the companies mentioned in this report.
