Intel is circling the drain. At this point I'm of the opinion that the sooner it dies the better. Its death will probably result in a lot of spin-offs and startups, which might be what the US chip industry needs.
It'll never happen. It's the standard US playbook:
- Allow industry to consolidate to a tiny group of winners, or just one winner
- Turn a blind eye to anticompetitive behavior in the marketplace
- Protect the uncompetitive winner from innovative global competitors
- Bail it out because national security depends on it
It's funny because we don't have socialism, government doesn't 'own' heavy industries, but at the same time the major firms will obviously never be allowed to fail on national security grounds.