Self-immolation is only a path to growth if you're a magical bird -- it's not a reasonable strategy for a healthy public company. AMD went through seven years of pain and humiliation between that spinoff and its 2015 glow-up. I understand that sometimes the optimal solution involves a short-term hit, but you don't just sell your organs on a lark (nor because some finance bros at Third Point said so). There are obvious strategic reasons to remain an IDM, and AMD would never have gone fabless if the company hadn't been in an existential crisis. Intel is nowhere near that kind of crisis; it may have some egg on its face but the company still dominates market share in its core businesses and is making profits hand over fist.
> Maybe there is a way for Intel to open up its fab business to other customers and make it more independent, without splitting it off into another company.
Intel Custom Foundry. They have several years of experience doing exactly what you describe, and that's how their relationship with Altera (which they later acquired) began. I see AMD's subsequent bid for Xilinx as a copycat acquisition that demonstrates one of the competitive advantages of Intel's position as an IDM: information.
