Yeah, revenue of $80B/year can cover a lot of failed growth projects, even multibillion dollar ones.
I think the only point that I disagree with in the OP is the idea that there is declining revenue in the "legacy CPU" market. It seems like there is still a long trajectory of slow growth there at worst.
Intel is strip mining its current customers by jacking up newer server chip prices and discontinuing their older chips (due to 10nm fabs not being ready). Intel is producing few low-end chips(i3/i5), which has in part caused the current Ram glut.
These large customers that have caused a temporary surge in profit are in the process of migrating away from Intel.
> While I do believe what was said above, it seems that whatever choices they are making that supposedly are resulting in a failing company from an engineering perspective, are resulting in a successful company from a financial perspective.
Finances for big brands can be lagging indicators.
Revenue grew last quarter almost 20% YoY to ~$20B
Net income has been up 40%-80% each quarter YoY, to ~$5B
While I do believe what was said above, it seems that whatever choices they are making that supposedly are resulting in a failing company from an engineering perspective, are resulting in a successful company from a financial perspective.