Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[blauboad]

It's not a matter of "kindness" at all, unless you would also say that Intel depends on the "kindness" of the engineers it has on salary. We're talking about mutually beneficial economic relationships. Certainly is AMD is a riskier play (and this is priced in) because it does not have total control over these partnerships, particularly with juggernauts like IBM. But, that is *exactly* what makes AMD attractive to companies like IBM, SUN, and MS, who want to maintain control over where the market is going (or at least not have it dictated to them by another company).

This same little-guy status does end up being a liability when it comes to the more consumer and desktop oriented OEMs, though. Dell is not as interested in shaping the market as it is in following it and subsequently undercutting everyone else. For that they need quantities, prices, and order terms that AMD has apparently not yet been able to provide. But this has been done to death on these boards...

My point is that there are real strategic advantages to being a smaller player, provided you have competitive technology which AMD clearly does.