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How Intel Got Left Behind in the A.I. Chip Boom
英特尔如何在AI芯片热潮中落后
In 2005, there was no inkling of the artificial intelligence boom that would come years later.
在2005年，人们完全不知道几年后会出现人工智能热潮。
But directors at Intel, whose chips served as electronic brains in most computers, faced a decision that might have altered how that transformative technology evolved.
但是英特尔的芯片在大多数计算机中充当电子大脑，该公司的董事们当时面临着一个本可能改变这一变革性技术的发展之路的决定。
Paul Otellini, Intel’s chief executive at the time, presented the board with a startling idea: Buy Nvidia, a Silicon Valley upstart known for chips used for computer graphics.
当时的英特尔CEO保罗·欧德宁向董事会提出了一个惊人的想法：收购英伟达，这是一家以计算机图形芯片而闻名的硅谷新星。
The price tag: as much as $20 billion.
收购价格：高达200亿美元。
Some Intel executives believed that the underlying design of graphics chips could eventually take on important new jobs in data centers, an approach that would eventually dominate A.I. systems.
一些英特尔高管认为，图形芯片的底层设计原理最终可能会在数据中心承担重要的新任务，这最终将成为AI系统的主导原理。
But the board resisted, according to two people familiar with the boardroom discussion who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because the meeting was confidential.
但据两位董事会讨论知情人士透露，董事会拒绝了这一想法。由于会议是保密的，这两位人士要求匿名。
Confronting skepticism from the board, Mr. Otellini, who died in 2017, backed away, and his proposal went no further.
面对董事会的质疑，欧德宁（于2017年去世）让步了，他的提议也没有进一步推进。
In hindsight, one person who attended the meeting said, it was “a fateful moment.”
事后再看，一位出席了那场会议的人说这是“一个命运般的时刻”。
Today Nvidia is the unrivaled A.I. chip king and one of the most valuable corporations in the world, while Intel, once the semiconductor superpower, is reeling and getting no lift from the A.I. gold rush.
如今，英伟达是无可匹敌的AI芯片之王，也是全世界市值最高的公司之一，而英特尔这个昔日半导体超级巨头，现在正摇摇欲坠，未从AI淘金热潮中获得提升。
The story of how Intel, which recently cut 15,000 jobs, got left behind in A.I. is representative of the broader challenges the company now faces.
最近裁员1.5万人的英特尔是如何在AI领域落后的故事代表了该公司目前面临的更广泛的挑战。
There were opportunities missed, wayward decisions and poor execution, according to interviews with more than two dozen former Intel managers, board directors and industry analysts.
根据对超过二十四位前英特尔经理、董事会董事和行业分析师的采访，英特尔错失了机会、做出了任性的决策、执行也很糟糕。
The trail of missteps was a byproduct of a corporate culture born of decades of success and high profits, going back to the 1980s, when Intel’s chips and Microsoft’s software became the twin engines of the fast-growing personal computer industry.
这一连串的失误是几十年来的成功和高利润培养出来的企业文化的副产品，这种成功可以追溯到20世纪80年代，当时英特尔的芯片和微软的软件成为了快速增长的个人电脑行业的双引擎。
That culture was hard-charging and focused on its franchise in personal computers and later in data centers.
这种文化就是积极进取，专注于其在个人电脑以及后来在数据中心领域的特许授权。
Intel executives, only half-jokingly, described the company as “the largest single-cell organism on the planet,” an insular self-contained world.
英特尔的高管们半开玩笑地将公司描述为“地球上最大的单细胞生物”，一个与世隔绝、自给自足的世界。
It was a corporate ethos that worked against the company as Intel tried and failed, repeatedly, to become a leader in chips for artificial intelligence.
当英特尔屡败屡战地试图成为AI芯片的领导者时，这种企业精神对公司不利。
Projects were created, pursued for years and then abruptly shut down, either because Intel leadership lost patience or the technology fell short.
项目被创建，执行了很多年，然后或因英特尔领导层失去了耐心，或因技术不足而突然被关停。
Investments in newer chip designs invariably took a back seat to protecting and expanding the company’s money-spinning mainstay — generations of chips based on Intel’s PC-era blueprint, called the x86 architecture.
对新芯片设计的投资总是让位于保护和扩大公司的盈利支柱——基于英特尔个人电脑时代蓝图（称为x86架构）的几代芯片。
“That technology was Intel’s crown jewel — proprietary and very profitable — and they would do anything in their power to maintain that,” said James D. Plummer, a professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University and a former Intel director.
“这项技术是英特尔的王冠明珠——专有且利润丰厚——他们会竭尽所能来维护它。”斯坦福大学电气工程教授、前英特尔董事詹姆斯·D. 普卢默说。
Intel’s leaders, at times, acknowledged the issue.
英特尔的领导者有时承认这个问题。
Craig Barrett, a former Intel chief executive, once compared the x86 chip business to a creosote bush — a plant that poisons competing plants around it.
前英特尔CEO克雷格·贝瑞特曾将x86芯片业务比作一种三齿团灌木——一种会毒死与其竞争的周围植物的树木。
Still, the profits were high for so long, Intel did not really shift course.
尽管如此，由于该芯片利润长期保持高位，因此英特尔并没有真正改变路线。
