Michelle Johnson Holthaus and David Zinsner, the interim CEOs of Intel who took over after Pat Gelsinger resigned, do not rule out the possibility of selling the chip business. This was reported by Reuters.
During the Barclays conference call, Holthaus and Zinsner were asked whether the further merger of the company's manufacturing and design businesses was linked to the success of the new 18A process, which is planned to be used to make flagship PC chips. The executives noted that if this technology fails, they may sell the manufacturing business, although this decision is not up to them.
"Pragmatically, do I think it makes sense that they're completely separated and there's no tie? I don't think so. But someone will decide that," Holthaus said.
As for Zinsner, he added that Intel is already separating the financial and operational activities of the chip manufacturing division into a separate entity, the Intel Foundry. This unit operates independently of other parts of the company and is preparing to create a separate operating board and implement its own business process software system.
"That's [production and design section] going to happen," Zinsner said. "Does it ever fully separate? That's an open question for another day," Zinsner said.
Intel is currently looking for a replacement for Pat Gelsinger, who left the company after more than 40 years. Among the potential candidates for the CEO position is Johnny Srouji, known for his work on Apple's Sillicon processors.