What you need to know
- Microsoft has confirmed its hiring of semiconductor designer Mike Filippo.
- According to Bloomberg, Filippo will be involved in the company's server-side chip efforts.
- Filippo has worked at Apple, Intel, and Arm, among others.
Another industry heavyweight has joined Microsoft: Mike Filippo. He has history at Apple, Intel, and Arm.
Though Microsoft confirmed having hired him, his specific role has yet to be formally announced. Bloomberg's report on the matter indicates he'll be helping with Microsoft's server chip initiatives. Though Microsoft currently partners with AMD and Intel for said chips, the company could be looking to craft its own and, by extension, cut its reliance on external partners.
This all hearkens back to the question of whether Microsoft will go all-in on its own silicon. It remains to be seen, but hiring a chip veteran such as Filippo hints at some degree of a focus on homegrown semiconductor developments from the Windows 11 maker.
Filippo's departure is yet another loss for Apple, which has been seeing its manpower defect to Microsoft as well as other competitors including Meta. In fact, Meta has hurt Microsoft in this area as well, having scored some of Redmond's augmented reality experts.
Still, none of this should be a big surprise. Shakeups such as these happen often in the tech industry, and reports constantly swirl of various industry veterans and high-level suits joining former rivals. For example, Intel recently appointed the former CFO of Micron to be its CFO, though that news was dwarfed by the neighboring story that Intel had angered a U.S. senator and potentially destabilized a government funding opportunity as a result of its apologies to China. The apologies were in response to an innocuous disclaimer wherein Intel stated it doesn't operate within the Xinjiang region, a stance necessitated by U.S. sanctions pertaining to the abuse of Uyghurs in the province.
