In the span of a few decades, Intel has gone from a global leader in semiconductors to a company frantically conserving cash.

Last week’s earnings report revealed the shocking extent of its challenges: The chipmaker said it would cut 15% of its workforce (~15,000 employees) and suspend the dividend it had paid out since 1992 as part of a plan to save $10 billion in costs next year. Shares tanked 26% on Friday to their lowest level in 15 years.

In a memo to employees, CEO Pat Gelsinger didn’t bother to use a compliment sandwich. He said starkly, “Our costs are too high, our margins are too low,” and that the belt-tightening moves represent “some of the most consequential changes in our company’s history.”

What went so wrong for Intel?

In the 1990s and early 2000s, Intel lapped the competition like Katie Ledecky in the pool by providing the computing brains for Microsoft PCs (vaunted as the “Wintel” partnership). But the world changed, and Intel was not prepared, as detailed by the Economist:

• Because Intel was so focused on making chips for computers, it missed out on the shift to smartphones.
• It also got out-classed in transistor production by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., and South Korea’s Samsung.

But perhaps the most consequential mistake was getting caught flat-footed for the AI gold rush. Big Tech companies are spending more than $100 billion this year to build out AI infrastructure, but they’re writing checks to Nvidia—not Intel. Nvidia sells $20 billion worth of AI chips each quarter; Intel will sell $500 million over the entire year.

Intel’s stumbles are also a geopolitical embarrassment for the White House, which has held it up as an American champion and made it the biggest beneficiary of the CHIPS Act meant to spur production in the US. Intel will receive up to $8.5 billion—more than any other company—to help it build factories across the country.

But those projects will take time to ramp up, underscoring how Intel’s turnaround is years away...if it arrives at all.—NF

Naturally, the first thing you do is rope in your therapist as you go on the run.

At least that’s the sitch we find Rory (played by Matt Damon) and Cobby (played by Casey Affleck) in in The Instigators, an upcoming movie from Apple Original Films. Join these unlikely partners, a desperate father and an ex-con, for a chaotic and hilarious adventure on Aug. 9.

Rory’s therapist (played by Hong Chau) pitches in to help evade capture as the motley crew is pursued by police, bureaucrats, and even a crime boss.

Come for the heist; stay for the getaway—only on Apple TV+.

Far-right violence spreads across the UK. Anti-immigrant rioters tried to break into a Holiday Inn Express housing asylum-seekers in the English town of Rotherham as violence from far-right agitators expanded to multiple cities over the weekend. Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the “far-right thuggery” that has broken out following the stabbing deaths of three girls last month, spurred by false rumors that the 17-year-old suspect was a Muslim and an immigrant. A main figure rallying the activists is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson, who was banned by Twitter in 2018 but reinstated by Elon Musk after he acquired the company.

More countries tell their citizens to leave Lebanon. The US, UK, Australia, France, and other nations urged their citizens to leave Lebanon over concerns that a wider regional war would break out in the Middle East following two assassinations, one in Tehran and one in Beirut, last week. Airlines including Emirates, Air France-KLM Group, and Lufthansa Group have suspended, rescheduled, or canceled flights to and from Beirut, home to Lebanon’s only commercial airport. Israel has confirmed it was behind the strike that killed a Hezbollah commander in Beirut, but it did not comment on the killing of Hamas’s political chief in Tehran. Iran has vowed “severe” retaliation.

Warren Buffett sold heaps of Apple stock. The Oracle of Omaha revealed on Saturday that Berkshire Hathaway sold nearly half of its stake in Apple in Q2, though the iPhone-maker remains its biggest holding by a long shot. The move to dump Apple is part of a larger trend by Buffett to sell harder than a wrestler who’s just been body slammed: Berkshire sold $75 billion in stocks during the second quarter and recently parted with $3.8 billion worth of Bank of America shares. No one knows if the 93-year-old investor has something major planned or if he sees a rainy day coming and is simply stockpiling gobs of cash. He should have plenty: Those share sales boosted Berkshire’s cash holdings to a record $277 billion. That’s more than the market cap of all but 32 companies.

When Americans go car shopping this summer, they’re asking automakers to do one thing: skimp my ride.

Sales of smaller vehicles that are cheaper than their beefier counterparts are on the rise this year, according to Cox Automotive data. Fed up with skyrocketing car prices, people are choosing more affordable options and shunning SUVs and pickup trucks that have long dominated the market.

Overall vehicle sales growth is at 2% for the year. And yet:

• Compact car sales are up 18%.
• Compact SUV sales are up 12%. One of the rising stars is the Chevy Trax (starting price: $21,495), whose sales have jumped 230% compared to the first six months of last year.

Meanwhile, sales of those giant pickup trucks that appear during every commercial break on NFL Sundays have declined by 4%.

The price is right: While the cost of automobiles ballooned by ~20% from January 2021 to January 2024, most compact SUVs are under $30,000, and smaller vehicles tend to come with smaller interest rates. The average cost of a pickup truck is above $60,000.

Pickups aren’t going anywhere yet: The three best-selling vehicles in the US last year were pickups with flatbeds—the Ford F-Series, the Chevy Silverado, and the Ram pickup.

What about EVs? The cost currently puts them out of reach for most, but Ford (in 2027) and Tesla (next year) plan to introduce EVs under $30,000.—DL

No joke, time’s ticking. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to secure your spot at the Marketing Brew Summit on September 12. Prices are set to increase soon, so now is the perfect time to register. Join industry leaders and innovators for a day packed with valuable insights, networking opportunities, and actionable business strategies. Take advantage of these savings today!

American Noah Lyles is the fastest man in the world…by five one-thousandths of a second. The sprinter and Yu-Gi-Oh! fan won gold in the 100m dash in a wild photo finish, becoming the first American to win the event in 20 years. It was the closest men’s 100m final since 1980—Lyles beat Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson with a time of 9.784 seconds to Thompson’s 9.789 seconds.

Next up: Lyles will try to become the first man since Usain Bolt to win gold in both the 100m and the 200m.

Kamala Harris will choose her running mate by Tuesday. Six candidates, one job opening. If only the odds were ever this good when applying for a position through LinkedIn. The current VP spent the weekend interviewing a half-dozen potential replacements: four governors—Andy Beshear of Kentucky, J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, and Tim Walz of Minnesota—and Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Harris will reportedly make her choice by Tuesday, when she begins a tour of seven battleground states that starts with a stop in Philadelphia.

Tom Cruise—who else?—will close out the Olympics: The final week of the Paris Games, which will see gold handed out in sports including track and field, basketball, soccer, volleyball, and wrestling, will have a very Hollywood ending. The closing ceremony on Sunday will feature Cruise rappelling down the Stade de France, landing on the field, and carrying the Olympic flag. In a part that’s been prerecorded, the Vanilla Sky star will fly back to California, skydive from above Los Angeles, and land near the Hollywood sign in a passing of the flag to the host city of the 2028 Olympics. We found the one thing Snoop Dogg isn’t willing to do for the Olympics.

Everything else…

• Ohio will put the high in Ohio as recreational marijuana sales begin on Tuesday. It is the 25th state (plus the District of Columbia) to make recreational weed legal.
• Companies reporting earnings this week include Uber (Tuesday), Novo Nordisk and Disney (Wednesday), and Eli Lilly (Thursday).
• It Ends With Us, a movie starring Blake Lively and based on Colleen Hoover’s NYT bestseller, hits theaters on Friday.
• HBO’s Industry is back for a third season on Sunday after a two-year hiatus. ESG investing will be in the spotlight and Kit Harington is joining the cast.