Intel's decline in the semiconductor industry can be attributed to a series of missed opportunities and poor leadership decisions. One significant misstep was Intel's failure to recognize the importance of the smartphone market, leading them to reject a proposal to supply processors for the first iPhone. This decision allowed competitors like Qualcomm and ARM to capitalize on the burgeoning mobile market. Another critical error was Intel's dismissal of TSMC's "fabless" manufacturing model, which separated chip design from manufacturing, ultimately enabling TSMC to become the world's largest contract chip manufacturer. Additionally, Intel was slow to adopt EUV lithography, a crucial technology for producing smaller and more powerful chips, further hindering its ability to compete with companies like TSMC and Samsung, who embraced EUV early on. These missteps were compounded by internal leadership failures and a lack of vision, resulting in the loss of key partners such as Apple and Microsoft, both of whom transitioned away from Intel's x86 architecture to ARM-based processors.