When AMD was at 2$, the story was that their chips designs are shit, slow, overheating etc. And since they had just flogged off their foundry they didn´t have access to any useful process, thus the chips were more slow and hot and power hungry. They also tons of debt, and basically no assets, and no way to compete - while Intel had the best chip designs and the best foundries.

We'll see what the story will be going forward.