Hey mate,
First off, allow me to humbly offer a different point of view - Intel will
not be the preferred outcome for a licence agreement.
I was lucky enough to attend the AGM back in Nov and able to speak to CEO Coby Hanoch personally. One of the questions I brought up was "given the relationship between Dadi and Intel, how likely would WBT be partnering with them?" and his response was simply "Intel isn't even a priority"
If you look closely into the Non-Volatile RAM race of today, you will find that Crossbar remains as leader in the ReRAM field. Intel has spent billions developing their own 3D XPoint since 2015, through their collaboration with Micron. I don't see why they would give up billions and years of effort to suddenly shift focus to develop ReRAM.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/crossbar-aims-to-bury-intels-3d-xpoint-with-superior-technology/
Now amongst the leaders in ReRAM development, you see:
- Crossbar is now sampling their 40nm ReRAM , which is being made on a foundry basis by China’s SMIC . That's after 7 years of development since 2010
- Fujitsu and Panasonic are jointly ramping up a second-generation ReRAM device. Fujitsu licenced Nantero's carbon nanotube RAM for their products.
- Intel and Micron has developed 3D XPoint
- HP teamed up with Western Digital to develop another ReRAM technology, while WD has a subsidiary HGST partnering with 4DS
The list goes on...
"
ReRAM won’t replace NAND or other memories, but it is expected to find its place, particularly in embedded memory applications. 'ReRAM is a solution for cost-sensitive applications, such as wearables and IoT devices,' said Yau Kae Sheu, assistant vice president of embedded nonvolatile memory at UMC"
"
While it remains to be seen if ReRAM can succeed as a storage-class memory, the technology also is being targeted for other segments, particularly neural networks.
Facebook, Google and others have developed systems using machine learning, which makes use of neural networks. In neural networking, the system crunches data and identifies patterns. Then, it learns which of those attributes are important"
Source:
https://semiengineering.com/what-happened-to-reram/
In fact, one of the biggest take away from the AGM to me was Coby's vision on Weebit's tech. He mentioned multiple times how AI facial recognition and machine learning in modern days require a huge amount of memory, which current flash is not capable to accommodate. This will allow Weebit's SiOx ReRAM to play a major role in shaping up this next gen memory storage class.
So in my opinion, if they are targeting to strike a deal with a company to break into the memory market for machine learning, the likes of Facebook and Google would be preferred; but if they want a piece in the semi-conductor market, then their best bet would have to be
Samsung. (
http://www.zdnet.com/article/samsungs-26-billion-bet/)
Lets be honest, its all talk and speculation until they actually signed an agreement. As a shareholder, I would be grateful even if they sign a small company to commercialise their tech. After all this is a market that's worth almost half a trillion dollar in sales, even if WBT captures only a tiny fraction of it, SP will still be many many multiples from what it is currently.
These are my opinion only and please DYOR
Hez
(20min delay)