Dive Brief:
- Intel is ready to embrace the "new Intel" with a particular focus on "anything that produces data" and "anything that requires a lot of computing," according to Intel CEO, Brian Krzanich in a memo given to CNBC.
- The chipmaker's 50th anniversary is in July, and Krzanich said the company is closer than ever to becoming a "50/50 company," where its revenue comes from PCs and new growth markets in equal parts. New growth includes technologies such as AI chips and the cloud.
- The memo follows Intel's announcement that Raja Koduri will join the company as chief architect and senior VP of the Core and Visual Computing Group, according to a company announcement. The move is to help create a graphics processor that will give the company a competitive edge over NVIDIA and AMD.
Dive Insight:
The legacy chipmaker is continuing its remodel to stay relevant as a tech vendor. In 2016, the company announced it was planning to lay off 12,000 employees worldwide by mid-2017 to save about $750 million.
The layoffs were a result of the company slightly departing from its chip-based business model and moving toward one that includes data centers, the IoT, memory and connectivity. This year, the company's full-year revenue hit $62 billion, more than what was initially projected. Data center revenue alone brought in $4.88 billion.
But Intel's hardline approach to Big Data is important for the 2.5 quintillion bytes of data produced daily around the world. Companies need access to both hot and dormant data, and being able to provide solutions for both is vital for its innovative "new normal," according to Krzanich.
