from Hacker News

Intel: New products must deliver 50% gross profit to get the green light

by Scramblejams on 6/5/25, 9:17 PM with 6 comments

• by jschveibinz on 6/6/25, 4:35 AM

  I think this is a good threshold for a startup or lean small business, but perhaps a bit low for Intel? A 50% gross profit is basically like a 100% markup: the cost to make the product is doubled to get the sale price.

  But that 50% gross profit remaining has to cover all of operations overhead--which includes G&A and R&D--and still leave a net profit > 5% for shareholders. Note that software products usually deliver in excess of 80% gross profit; and hardware products are 50% or more.

• by insane_dreamer on 6/5/25, 10:45 PM

  This is not encouraging. Gross profit is the wrong metric to be "laser focused" on for long-term survival.

• by PaulHoule on 6/5/25, 9:18 PM

  Sounds like a corporate suicide pact to me.