Intel

Intel Corporation is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It designs, manufactures, and sells computer components such as central processing units (CPUs) and related products for business and consumer markets. Intel was the world's third-largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue in 2024 and has been included in the Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by revenue since 2007. It was one of the first companies listed on Nasdaq. Intel supplies microprocessors for most manufacturers of computer systems, and is one of the developers of the x86 series of instruction sets found in most personal computers (PCs). It also manufactures chipsets, network interface controllers, flash memory, graphics processing units (GPUs), and other devices related to communications and computing. Intel has a strong presence in the general-purpose and gaming PC market with its Intel Core line of CPUs and Intel Arc series of GPUs. Intel was founded in 1968 by engineers Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce, along with investor Arthur Rock, and is associated with the executive leadership and vision of Andrew Grove. The company was a key component of the rise of Silicon Valley as a high-tech center, and was an early developer of static (SRAM) and dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips, which represented the majority of its business until 1981. Although Intel created the world's first commercial microprocessor chip—the Intel 4004—in 1971, it was not until the success of the PC in the early 1980s that this became its primary business.

During the 1990s, the partnership between Microsoft Windows and Intel—known as Wintel—shaped the PC market, solidifying Intel's position. As a result, Intel invested heavily in new microprocessor designs in the mid-to-late 1990s, fostering the industry's rapid growth. During this period, it became the dominant supplier of CPUs, and was known for aggressive and anti-competitive tactics in defense of its position, as well as tensions with Microsoft over the PC industry's direction. Since the 2000s and especially the late 2010s, competition from AMD has reduced Intel's dominance and market share, though it continues to lead the x86 market in the 2020s by a wide margin.