Intel's interim co-CEOs Michelle Johnston Holthaus and David Zinsner have provided an extensive update on the firm's future, detailing its business plans.
Intel's Interim co-CEOs Reveal The Fate of Intel Foundry And The Changes To Be Expected In Business Strategy
Since Team Blue's former CEO Pat Gelsinger left, many have wondered what the next step for Intel and its future business will be. However, at the recent Barclays technology conference in San Francisco, both of Intel's interim CEOs were on the stage, discussing the following plans. Their statements included updates about Intel Foundry, the future of the data center business, and many other matters, but we will only focus on the crucial ones for now.
Starting with one of the more important statements, the officials said the firm is implementing massive structural changes in Intel Foundry. This includes creating a separate operational board, which is one step towards segregating IFS into a separate entity. We have already discussed this part of the conference in a dedicated post here, which you can check out.
One of the more exciting updates was on Intel's 18A process, where Holthaus gave the media a rundown of what was happening behind the scenes. The official validated that Intel's next-gen Panther Lake SoCs, successor to Arrow Lake, will indeed feature the 18A process. Interestingly, the firm has also sent initial engineering samples "ES0" to some of its partners, showing that the 18A process is in the validation stages and that the node is in an optimal state, despite rumors categorizing it as a flawed one.
Now we are using Intel Foundry for Panther Lake, which is our 2025 product, which will land on 18A. And this is the first time that we're customer zero in a long time on an Intel process.
But just to give some assurances, on Panther Lake, we have our ES0 samples out with customers. We have eight customers that have powered on, which gives you just kind of an idea that the health of the silicon is good and the health of the Foundry is good.
- Intel's Michelle Johnston Holthaus
Another vital future matter to discuss is Intel's outsourcing strategy and its sudden shift, given the sluggish performance of IFS. Holthaus, who now is Intel's Product CEO, says that using external foundries like TSMC has always been beneficial for the firm; given this move, they can land in decent ASPs (Average Selling Prices), and the orders land in at the right time, however, the official also says that they are satisfied with the performance of Intel Foundry as well, likely hinting that the company will proceed with the "hybrid sourcing" model.
And what I found was at times, picking TSMC was the right decision, because where I could land on their performance price curve made the most sense for the ASP that I could get at the time.
But I'll also say, TSMC has been a fantastic partner. They're very easy to work with and myself being very customer-oriented, what I tell everybody at Intel every day is they're the benchmark for what's expected in the industry.
- Intel's Michelle Johnston Holthaus
Regarding the future of Intel's AI business, Holthaus says that their Gaudi product lineup isn't easy to deploy, which is why the adoption has slowed. She says that AMD has been doing a better job in this particular segment, but in the future, Intel's primary focus will be switching customers back to Team Blue's AI products. The official says that next year will be the timeline for Intel to stabilize data center losses and, with the launch of Falcon Shores, create an ecosystem that is more scalable and easier to deploy in the markets.
The interim co-CEOs discussed many other factors, including AI PC sales and general market trends, and the main crux of the talk is that, despite setbacks, Intel is confident about the future of its business, and likely now has a trajectory on which it can build upon in the upcoming times.
About the author: Muhammad Zuhair is a hardware and technology reporter for Wccftech, specializing in the semiconductor industry and the complex interplay between technology, manufacturing, and geopolitics. His coverage focuses on the corporate strategies and technological roadmaps of industry giants like TSMC, NVIDIA, Samsung, and Intel. Zuhair's expertise lies in deconstructing complex topics such as fabrication nodes (e.g., 2nm process), the economic impact of policies like the CHIPS Act, and the strategic development of AI infrastructure from NVIDIA, AMD and Intel.
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