Why the Second-Biggest Tech Player Usually Wins on Profit (opens in new tab)

In 2007, AMD was losing the processor war to Intel so badly that analysts were writing its obituary. Then something strange happened: AMD stopped trying to win and started trying to survive profitably. It shed fabs, licensed designs, and focused on niches where it could charge real margins. By the early 2020s, AMD’s stock had outperformed Intel’s by a factor that would have seemed like fiction to anyone watching in 2007. AMD never took the top spot in total market share. It didn’t need to. Th...