Robert Swan Named CEO of Intel
Intel today announced that its board of directors had named Robert Swan, its CFO and interim CEO, as full-time chief executive officer. Mr. Swan will be the company's first CEO with financial background. As the head of the company, Mr. Swan will continue Intel's transformation from a PC-centric to a data-centric company with a focus on improving execution and aggressive capturing addressable markets using ambitious technologies.
Robert Swan (58) becomes chief exec of Intel at a rather interesting, yet challenging time. The world is at a strategical inflection point when multiple technologies have to converge in a bid to enable the next phase of industrial and social development. To stay relevant, Intel not only needs to retain its leading position as a developer and maker of CPUs and compute platforms, but also gain new important competencies. Meanwhile, the company is facing multiple challenges. Its traditional rivals are getting stronger (partly because they are forming alliances) and new competitors are emerging. In the meantime, Intel's leadership in semiconductor production is now challenged and many of its opponents have certain advantages.
Previously: Intel CEO Brian Krzanich Quits after Fling with Coworker Revealed
AMD Responds to Radeon VII Short Supply Rumors
Related Stories
Intel CEO, Brian Krzanich, has resigned because of a "a violation of Intel's non-fraternisation policy". The BBC reports:
Chipmaker Intel has announced that its chief executive, Brian Krzanich, is stepping down with immediate effect because of "a violation of Intel's non-fraternisation policy".
[...] Intel said an inquiry had revealed that Mr Krzanich had had a consensual relationship with an Intel employee, which was against company rules.
His successor has been named as Robert Swan, currently the company's chief financial officer.
The company said the relevant policy applied to all managers.
"Given the expectation that all employees will respect Intel's values and adhere to the company's code of conduct, the board has accepted Mr Krzanich's resignation."
AMD Responds to Radeon VII Short Supply Rumours
A few days ago we reported on rumours which alleged that AMD's Radeon VII graphics card would be in short supply, with a report claiming that AMD had "less than 5,000", units to sell.
The report also stated that AMD would also lose money on every graphics card sold, likely due to the device's workstation/datacenter origins and its use of 16GB of costly HBM2 memory.
This morning AMD has released an official response to these rumours, claiming that the company expects to meet demand from gamers, declining to release detailed production numbers. On top of that, AMD also confirmed that the company's AIB partners would be selling Radeon VII graphics cards, alongside their retail presence on AMD.com, which means that AMD has produced their new graphics card in large enough quantities for AIBs to receive a sizable stock allocation.
Will AMD's Lisa Su Step Up as Intel's Next CEO?
Intel's next CEO is a hot topic in the tech sector. Rumors suggest that the company plans to announce its new CEO before its fourth quarter of 2018 earnings release on January 24. Intel's only rival in the PC and server CPU market is Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). Speculation of an Intel–AMD merger keeps popping up, but it's unwarranted. The merger can never be a reality, as it would remove competition from the CPU market.
At CES 2019 (the Consumer Electronics Show), AMD overshadowed Intel with its 7nm (nanometer) product announcements. AMD's presentation once again sparked speculation of an Intel–AMD merger. An article in EE Times cited Jon Peddie Research vice president Kathleen Maher's views on this speculation.
She dismissed the speculation that Intel might acquire AMD, stating that AMD has nothing Intel wants except a CEO. Her comments were reiterated by Tirias Research principal analyst Kevin Krewell, who told EE Times that Intel "could try to hire Lisa Su, but that would be hard as well."
Previously: AMD Announces Radeon VII GPU, Teases Third-Generation Ryzen CPU
Intel Core i9-9990XE: Up to 5.0 GHz, Auction Only; AMD Radeon VII: Less Than 5,000 Available
Intel's CEO Bob Swan is looking beyond CPU market share:
"We think about having 30% share in a $230 billion [silicon] TAM[*] that we think is going to grow to $300 billion [silicon] TAM over the next 4 years, and frankly, I'm trying to destroy the thinking about having 90% share inside our company because, I think it limits our thinking, I think we miss technology transitions. we miss opportunities because we're, in some ways pre-occupied with protecting 90, instead of seeing a much bigger market with much more innovation going on, both Inside our four walls, and outside our four walls, so we come to work in the morning with a 30% share, with every expectation over the next several years, that we will play a larger and larger role in our customers success, and that doesn't just [mean] CPUs.
It means GPUs, it means Al, it does mean FPGAs, it means bringing these -technologies together so we're solving customers' problems. So, we're looking at a company with roughly 30% share in a $288 billion silicon TAM, not CPU TAM but silicon TAM. We look at the investments we've been making over the last several years in these kind of key technology inflections: 5G At autonomous, acquisitions, including Altera, that we think is more and more relevant both in the cloud but also ai the network and at the edge, and we see a much bigger opportunity, and our expectations are that we're going to gain our fair share at that much larger TAM by Investing in these key technology inflections." - Intel CEO Bob Swan
A 30% TAM in all of silicon would mean that Intel not only has more room to grow but is a lot more diversified as well. With the company working on the Nervana processor as well as its Xe GPU efforts, it seems poised to start clawing market share in new markets. Interestingly, it also means that Intel is not interested in defending its older title of being the CPU champion and will actually cede space to AMD where required. To me, this move is reminiscent of Lisa Su's decision to cede space in the GPU side of things to turn AMD around.
Intel's business strategy is now focused on whatever an "XPU" is as well as GPUs, FPGAs, machine learning accelerators, and next-generation memory/storage:
This means the company intends to continue making its heaviest bets in areas such as Optane storage, hardware Artificial Intelligence acceleration, 5G modems, data center networking, and more. The slide that really drives this commitment home comes from Q2's investor meeting that explicitly shows the company moving from a "protect and defend" strategy to a growth strategy. If this slide were in a sales meeting, it wouldn't say much—but delivered to the company's investors, it gains a bit of gravitas.
Most of this was revealed nearly six months ago at the company's May 2019 investor's meeting, but the Q3 investor's meeting last week continues with and strengthens this story for Intel's future growth, with slides more focused on Optane, network, and IoT/Edge market growth than with the traditional PC and server market.
[*] TAM = Total Addressable Market.
Related: Intel Promises "10nm" Chips by the End of 2019, and More
Intel's Interim CEO Robert Swan Becomes Full-Time CEO
AMD Gains Market Share in Desktops, Laptops, and Servers as of Q4 2018
PC Market Decline Blamed on Intel, AMD to See Gains
Intel Chip Shortages - at Least Another Quarter or Two to Go, Say PC Execs
Intel announces $20 billion increase in stock buybacks (from $4.5 billion)
Intel Xe High Performance Computing GPUs will use Chiplets
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 01 2019, @04:32PM (1 child)
It is strange they had him as interim for so long and just now made it "permanent". I could see that they mislead customers/investors too much regarding "10 nm" and now are in danger if they reveal that to any outsiders.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday February 01 2019, @05:09PM
That's not a very satisfying explanation. I think they just saw him as a safe choice, and he will be deferring to others that Intel has hired, some poached from AMD:
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/intel-stock-slips-as-board-says-what-about-bob-at-end-of-lengthy-ceo-search-2019-01-31 [marketwatch.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 01 2019, @04:40PM (2 children)
A bean counter, just what they need to come back as a technological innovator.
"improving execution and aggressive capturing addressable markets using ambigous technologies."
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 01 2019, @05:38PM (1 child)
He'll end up promoting his ilk in the entire organization, which will then go to the pigs.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday February 01 2019, @08:53PM
Fine by me. This is a fitting karmic death for what they did to AMD in the late 20th and very early 21st century. I can't think of a better way for that company to die than the equivalent of intestinal obstruction and toxic megacolon.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 01 2019, @04:49PM (3 children)
This feels like the CEO search failed. It took 7 months to ultimately give the job to the guy already doing it. He also previously told employees at an All-Hands that he didn't want the job.
In the last 7 months investors have waited patiently for news on new products: specifically the release of the 10nm line. While CES revealed new and exciting products using 10nm for a 2019 release, for the most part Bob's interim CEO time provided little details on the future of the products or company. Even today, late 2019 feels like a vague promise when the product is years behind schedule.
I have friends who work for Intel and I hope Bob steps up and helps the company through this time of fierce competition. However, I am scared that a former finance guy will take the most profitable path at the expense of innovation, especially when Global Foundries recently chose to drop 7nm and focus on 14nm.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Friday February 01 2019, @05:15PM (2 children)
Intel poached some big names from AMD recently, including Raja Koduri [soylentnews.org] and Jim Keller [wikipedia.org] (the guy behind Zen, actually poached from Tesla). It seems fine to have the finance guy running the show with some massive legends in charge of the technical aspects. Time will tell.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 01 2019, @05:25PM
Didn't that Raja heavily over-promise and under-deliver at AMD? Then start playing the blame game for the failure? That is what I have heard, but no idea if it is accurate.
(Score: 2) by SunTzuWarmaster on Friday February 01 2019, @07:48PM
(Score: 3, Funny) by realDonaldTrump on Friday February 01 2019, @04:56PM
He's not too old. And not too young. He's going very far, because he knows Financial. I really think that Financial is the future of Computer. And frankly, of everything. Our government is now doing Computer Payroll. Where the Computer writes the checks. I said, we're sending out so many checks, right? Is there a way we can use Computer to speed that one up? And more and more, we're doing the Computer checks. Our workers are getting paid very quickly, because of me.
And Robert did the Financial for Webvan. Very famous Company, very successful -- until Jeff Bozo bought them up. You would put Webvan in the websites, you say, "oh, I am hungry, I want food." And they would bring the food. Like ordering from a restaurant. But you supply the chef. So amazing.
Also the E-Bay. Congratulations, by the way, to E-Bay. Tremendous earnings and they're doing their first Dividend. Do you know E-Bay? Otherwise known as the name your own price website. You want a tremendous deal on almost anything -- a yacht, a car, a condo -- E-Bay. You go there, you tell them how much you want to pay. And so many times, you get what you want.
Outstanding Resume. Welcome to our Intel Community, Robert!!