(Bloomberg) — Intel Corp. Chief Financial Officer Dave Zinsner said a formal separation of the company’s factory and product development divisions is an open question that will be decided by the chipmaker’s next leader.
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Zinsner, who serves as interim co-CEO after Pat Gelsinger was ousted this month, made the comments Thursday at the Barclays Technology Conference in San Francisco alongside co-CEO Michel Johnston-Holthaus.
Intel’s struggles to keep up with its rivals – coupled with its deteriorating financial situation – have sparked speculation that the next CEO will make radical changes. This included talking about dividing the company’s manufacturing and product design operations.
“That’s an open question for another day,” Zinsner said in response to an analyst’s question.
He added that the two units are actually separate operationally, with different oversight and accounts. Gelsinger, who served as CEO from 2021 until last week, emphasized that it would be best to keep the two main parts of the company together.
Shares rose 2.1% to $20.55 at 12:36 pm in New York. They were down 60% as of Wednesday’s close.
Executives disagreed with the more optimistic messages offered by their predecessor and emphasized that it would take time to repair Intel’s competitiveness and finances. They pointed to progress in personal computer chips but also faced difficulties in data center products. Intel’s outsourcing manufacturing efforts, which include manufacturing chips for outside customers, pose another challenge.
Zinsner said the administration will focus less on talking about “early indicators of success” and more on tangible accomplishments. He added that they would also dispense with giving “meaningless” predictions of the overall long-term deal value of the company’s outsourced production efforts.
Johnston-Holthaus said Intel needs to invest more in its products and is prepared to deal with recessionary years in the near term to ensure it has offerings that will be more competitive in the long term.
Johnston Holthaus, known internally as “MJ,” also said that rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. It has done a better job of providing its joint customers with the data center products they want. In 2025, she said, the CEO will focus on trying to stem Intel’s market share loss. As part of last week’s changes, Johnston Holthaus also took on the role of chief product officer, putting her at the center of the effort.
In AI accelerator chips, where Nvidia has played a dominant role, Intel has also struggled. Johnston-Holthaus acknowledged the difficulty of using the company’s Gaudi chip. She said Intel is now focusing on more general graphics chipset offerings that won’t be great at first but will be updated quickly to make them competitive.
(Updates with additional executive comments starting in seventh paragraph.)
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