Intel Corp chief financial officer Dave Zinsner said that a formal separation of the company’s factory and product development divisions is an open question that would be decided by the chipmaker’s next leader.
Zinsner, who is serving as interim co-CEO following this month’s ouster of Pat Gelsinger, made the remarks on Thursday at the Barclays technology conference in San Francisco alongside co-CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus.
Intel’s struggles to keep pace with rivals — along with its deteriorating financial condition — have spurred speculation that the next CEO would make dramatic changes. That has included talk of a split of the company’s manufacturing and product design operations.
Photo: Reuters
“That’s an open question for another day,” Zinsner said in response to an analyst question.
The two units are already separated operationally, with different oversight and accounts, he said.
Gelsinger, who served as CEO from 2021 until last week, had maintained that the two main parts of the company were better kept together.
Johnston Holthaus said that access to leading production technology is an advantage for Intel’s products.
“So pragmatically, do I think it makes sense that they’re completely separated and there’s no ties?” she said. “I don’t think so, but someone will decide that.”
The shares gained 3.3 percent to US$20.78 in New York. They had plunged 60 percent through Wednesday’s close.
The executives broke with their predecessor’s more bullish messaging and emphasized that it would take time to fix Intel’s competitiveness and finances. They pointed to progress in personal computer chips, but also struggles ahead in data center products. Intel’s outsourced manufacturing effort, which involves making chips for outside clients, is another challenge.
Management would focus less on talking about “early indications of success” and more on concrete achievements, Zinsner said.
They also would dispense with giving “meaningless” long-term total deal value predictions for the company’s outsourced production efforts, he added.
Johnston Holthaus said that Intel needs to invest more in its products and is willing to deal with near-term down years to make sure it has offerings that would be more competitive in the long run.
Johnston Holthaus, known internally as “MJ,” also said that rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc has done a better job of providing their shared customers with data center products they want.
Next year, the executive would focus on trying to halt the market share loss that Intel has suffered, she said. As part of last week’s shake-up, Johnston Holthaus also took on the role of product CEO, putting her at the heart of that effort.
In artificial intelligence accelerator chips, where Nvidia Corp has taken a dominant role, Intel has struggled as well.
The company’s Gaudi chip is difficult to use, Johnston Holthaus acknowledged.
Intel is now focusing on more generic graphics chip offerings that would not be great at first, but would be rapidly updated to make them competitive, she said.
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
A proposed 100 percent tariff on chip imports announced by US President Donald Trump could shift more of Taiwan’s semiconductor production overseas, a Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) researcher said yesterday. Trump’s tariff policy will accelerate the global semiconductor industry’s pace to establish roots in the US, leading to higher supply chain costs and ultimately raising prices of consumer electronics and creating uncertainty for future market demand, Arisa Liu (劉佩真) at the institute’s Taiwan Industry Economics Database said in a telephone interview. Trump’s move signals his intention to "restore the glory of the US semiconductor industry," Liu noted, saying that
STILL UNCLEAR: Several aspects of the policy still need to be clarified, such as whether the exemptions would expand to related products, PwC Taiwan warned The TAIEX surged yesterday, led by gains in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), after US President Donald Trump announced a sweeping 100 percent tariff on imported semiconductors — while exempting companies operating or building plants in the US, which includes TSMC. The benchmark index jumped 556.41 points, or 2.37 percent, to close at 24,003.77, breaching the 24,000-point level and hitting its highest close this year, Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) data showed. TSMC rose NT$55, or 4.89 percent, to close at a record NT$1,180, as the company is already investing heavily in a multibillion-dollar plant in Arizona that led investors to assume
AI: Softbank’s stake increases in Nvidia and TSMC reflect Masayoshi Son’s effort to gain a foothold in key nodes of the AI value chain, from chip design to data infrastructure Softbank Group Corp is building up stakes in Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the latest reflection of founder Masayoshi Son’s focus on the tools and hardware underpinning artificial intelligence (AI). The Japanese technology investor raised its stake in Nvidia to about US$3 billion by the end of March, up from US$1 billion in the prior quarter, regulatory filings showed. It bought about US$330 million worth of TSMC shares and US$170 million in Oracle Corp, they showed. Softbank’s signature Vision Fund has also monetized almost US$2 billion of public and private assets in the first half of this year,
RSS