Recently, Intel announced that Justin Hotard, the head of its Data Center and AI (DCAI) business, will officially leave on April 1 to become the CEO of Nokia.
Hotard held the position of Senior Vice President and General Manager at Intel for just one year, but during this time, he contributed to the stable development of the company's DCAI business. He expressed his gratitude to the Intel team for their efforts over the past year on LinkedIn and wished them greater success in their future endeavors.
Hotard joined Intel in 2024, succeeding former DCAI head Sandra Rivera, who was appointed to lead the newly established Altera FPGA business. He previously worked at Hewlett Packard Enterprise for over eight years, serving as Executive Vice President and General Manager for high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, and laboratories. His arrival was met with high expectations to turn around Intel's struggling DCAI business.
During Hotard's brief tenure, he oversaw the launch of Intel's Sierra Forest E cores and Granite Rapids P core Xeon6 platform. Although the launch of Xeon6 temporarily restored Intel's core count balance with competitor AMD, the DCAI business has recently faced several challenges.
Shortly before the announcement of Hotard's departure, Intel's interim co-CEOs Michelle Johnston Holthaus and David Zinsner announced that the next-generation Clearwater Forest Xeon processors would be delayed until 2026, while also canceling the release plans for the Falcon Shores accelerator to prioritize the development of a future platform named Jaguar Shores.
Additionally, Intel's Gaudi AI accelerators have performed poorly in the market, falling short of the expectations set by former CEO Pat Gelsinger. Intel hoped to gain market share with the third-generation Gaudi accelerators, but by the time these accelerators were officially launched, competing products from Nvidia and AMD had already captured significant market share. As a result, Intel's Gaudi3 successor is currently only in the testing phase and is not expected to compete with Nvidia and AMD's products until at least 2026.
Following Hotard's departure, Intel has appointed Karin Eibschitz Segal to temporarily take over the DCAI business. Eibschitz has worked at Intel for 18 years, holding various engineering positions, and was appointed co-CEO of Intel Israel in 2023. Despite the executive changes and business challenges Intel faces, the company stated that it will continue to advance the priorities of the DCAI team to better serve its customers.
Key Points:
🌟 Hotard will leave Intel to become Nokia's CEO and expressed gratitude to the team.
🔄 DCAI business faces multiple challenges, with Clearwater Forest Xeon delayed until 2026.
📉 Gaudi AI accelerators have underperformed in the market, with future competing products postponed until 2026.
