In the years since Intel first adopted the x86 architecture, computer scientists at Berkeley had devised a newer, simpler chip architecture called RISC that offered more efficient calculations and thus lower power consumption. The x86 architecture was complex and bulky by comparison. In the 1990s, Andy Grove had seriously considered switching Intel’s main chips to a RISC architecture, but ultimately decided against it. RISC was more efficient, but the cost of change was high, and the threat to Intel’s de facto monopoly was too serious. The computer industry was designed around x86 and Intel
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This may be changing in light of Apple's switch to ARM's RISC-based chips in their Apple Silicon devices.
