This week Intel announced that it is investing $7 billion dollars to upgrade its existing facilities in New Mexico, Oregon and Arizona.
Intel’s President and CEO Paul Otellini said, “Intel will use the money to speed up deployment of Intel’s 32-nanometer manufacturing technology used to build faster, smaller, more energy efficient computer chips.”
Is this guy crazy? Intel spending all that money for chips? We are smack in the middle of a deepening recession with aggregate consumption tumbling and this guy is shelling out $7 billion large ones?Â
In fact, it’s a very smart move. In an interview heard on NPR he correctly commented that (paraphrasing here) “even in these times when someone’s PC breaks they will not go without one, they will replace it.”
In my mind the extension to this conversation is that when we resurface from this downturn, PC demand will regain momentum as incomes increase. Buyers who held on to their PC’s will be out looking for new ones. If you consider Moore’s Law, one could easily argue that those who have a PC going into this recession will be two generation behind current technology when we get out of it. The persistent movement to digital media will most certainly result in more demand not just for PC’s but for many other digitally enabled devices. As I have been saying for some time, people will become more digital not less and this investment is a clear indication that Intel believes future demand is significant enough to warrant such an investment.
It is also important for those who market/advertise in the digital space to grasp what Intel is suggesting. PC’s, digital devices as mainstream platforms will continue to grow and expand. These new chips will usher in exciting new opportunities for brands to present themselves.   Those who get this need to also position themselves to take advantage. They too should be investing in digital assets such as thought leadership, digital training, infrastructure, content, research etc. You don’t want to be sitting around in 18 months thinking about how to position yourself after to boat has sailed. You want to be positioning yourself now to be on that boat as it is sailing…all aboard!
