The new CEO at chip stock Intel INTC +1.48% ▲ is starting to look like a “be careful what you wish for” proposition, as Lip-Bu Tan is already calling for “tough decisions” to be made at the company. But even a day later, and despite some concern from analysts, shareholders are still in, and Intel shares were up nearly 1.5% in Friday afternoon’s trading.
We know that Lip-Bu has a solid background, as well as a history inside Intel and with its board. So he likely made an excellent choice for the top slot, or at least better than having two people split the job under the previous short-term tenure. At any rate, the new CEO’s initial address left a deep concern in Intel employees, who could not help but note that he referred to “tough decisions” ahead. Worse, he offered little information on his strategic vision, which left employees wondering who would be next on the block.
It did not help matters for employees that Lip-Bu previously stepped down from the board because he was looking for cuts from former CEO Pat Gelsinger. Thus, now that he is CEO, Intel employees are looking for cuts to happen once more, on top of the cuts that have already been seen.
Boosting the RAN
Meanwhile, in Intel’s products division, a new potential use for artificial intelligence (AI) came up that Intel may be able to capitalize on: use in radio access networks (RANs). In fact, RAN was a major topic out at the recently concluded Mobile World Congress event, and Intel actually has something novel to offer up therein. Intel has a way to put AI on RAN without turning to graphics processing units (GPUs).
That is a major step forward by itself. In fact, it is already drawing interest from telephone services that would rather not deal with Nvidia, giving Intel access to a whole new market. How does Intel pull this off? With the aid of its new Xeon 6 system-on-a-chip (SoC), which we have heard about before. Since the Xeon 6 can offer AI access for lower power use, that makes them an excellent alternative to GPUs, which can be power-intensive propositions. Plus, using an SoC helps improve total cost of ownership, which is an attractive prospect.
