Intel co-CEOs discuss splitting product and manufacturing businesses

• Intel's co-CEOs discussed splitting the firm's manufacturing and products businesses Thursday.
• A separation could address Intel's poor financial performance. It also has political implications.
• Intel Foundry is forming a separate operational board in the meantime, executives said.

Intel's new co-CEOs said the company is creating more separation between its manufacturing and products businesses and the possibility of a formal split is still in play.

When asked if separating the two units was a possibility and if the success of the company's crucial, new "18A" process could influence the decision, CFO David Zinsner and CEO of Intel Products Michelle Johnston Holthaus, now interim co-CEOs, said preliminary moves are in progress.

"We really do already run the businesses fairly independently," Holthaus said at a Barclays tech conference Thursday. She added that severing the connection entirely does not make sense in her view, "but, you know, someone will decide that," she said.

Ousted CEO Pat Gelsinger prioritized keeping the fabs as part of Intel proper. The fabs hold important geopolitical significance to both Intel and the US. The manufacturing part of the business also weighs on the company's financial results.

"As far as does it ever fully separate? I think that's an open question for another day," Zinsner said.

Already in motion

Though the co-CEOs made it clear a final decision on a potential break-up has not been made, Zinsner outlined a series of moves already in progress that could make a split easier.

"We already run the businesses separately, but we are going down the path of creating a subsidiary for Intel Foundry as part of the overall Intel company," Zinsner said.

In addition, the company is forming a separate operational board for Intel Foundry and separating the operations and inventory management software for the two sides of the business.

Until a permanent CEO is appointed by the board, the co-CEOs will manage most areas of the company together, but Zinsner alone will manage the Foundry business. The foundry aims to build a contract manufacturing business for other chip designers. Due to the sensitive, competitive intellectual property coming from clients into that business, separation is key.

"Obviously, they want firewalls. They want to protect their IPs, their product road maps, and so forth. So I will deal with that part of the foundry to separate that from the Intel Products business." Zinsner said.

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