Silver bullets, blank rounds
A struggling firm reaches for artificial intelligence as it once reached for innovation. Neither saves a business the sums no longer favour. Lip-Bu Tan took charge of Intel in March 2025 and started cutting almost at once. His predecessor, Pat Gelsinger, had shed around 15,000 jobs before the board pushed him out that December; by […] Silver bullets, blank rounds was originally published on…
Intel, once a pioneer in chip design, is now struggling to regain its footing in the face of a loss of $18.8 billion in 2024. Its new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, has started cutting staff and scrapping plans for fabrication plants in Germany and Poland. However, a study from MIT found that 95% of corporate deployments of generative AI have had no impact on the profit and loss account, despite spending $30 to $40 billion on them.
Companies are reportedly making the mistake of trying to implement AI without proper integration, leading to a "learning gap." In the tech industry, this issue has become apparent, with firms like Chegg experiencing a 30% revenue drop after partnering with OpenAI to create a chatbot tutor. Chegg had to cut 248 staff in May 2025 and an additional 388 in October due to issues with the new AI technology.
Steve Sasson, an engineer at Eastman Kodak, built the first digital camera in 1975 but Kodak failed to capitalize on it, leading to the company's downfall. Kodak filed for bankruptcy in 2012, leaving behind assets worth $5.1 billion and $6.75 billion in debt. Another company, Northvolt, founded in 2016 by Warren Buffett, aimed to build Europe's answer to China's battery giants.
However, despite raising over $15 billion in funding, the company's flagship plant in Sweden only managed to produce one gigawatt-hour of cells in 2024. BMW cancelled a $2 billion order with Northvolt, and in March 2025, the company filed for bankruptcy protection in America, owing $5.8 billion. Peter Carlsson, the founder of Northvolt, resigned amid the company's struggles.
Warren Buffett criticized the management of Northvolt, stating that when brilliant minds tackle businesses with bad economics, the reputation of the business remains intact.
Written by urgent.news from Emerging Europe's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
