Intel's Huge Bet Turns Iffy "For Intel, Itanium's failure would be a painful black eye, a setback in its heavily financed assault on the corporate computing world beyond the personal computer. For its partner, Hewlett-Packard, the chip venture, if anything, is even more important. Exploiting the Itanium opportunity was crucial to the thinking behind Hewlett-Packard's $19 billion merger this year with Compaq Computer. If Itanium fails, it will be a severe blow."