Head of Intel Foundry Services Resigns Just As Chip Biz Gets Going

The head of Intel's revitalized contract chip manufacturing business plans to step down, The Register has learned, creating a setback for the x86 behemoth's big bet to take on Asian foundry giants TSMC and Samsung as part of its comeback plan. From the report: Randhir Thakur, senior vice president and president of Intel Foundry Services, "has decided to pursue other opportunities" but will continue to lead the business unit through the first quarter of 2023 to "ensure a smooth transition to a new leader," Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said in an email to employees Monday that was seen by el Reg. Intel spokesperson William Moss confirmed the news with us. "We're grateful to Randhir for the tremendous progress IFS has made and for laying the foundation for Intel to become a world-class systems foundry," Moss said in a statement. "We wish him all the best in his new endeavors."

In his email, Gelsinger said he will share more information soon "about the new leader" for Intel Foundry Services, suggesting the company may have a successor in place -- or is at least close to having one. "Randhir has been a key member of the Executive Leadership Team for the past two and a half years and has served in several senior leadership roles since he joined us in 2017," Gelsinger wrote. "... His contributions to our [Integrated Device Manufacturing] 2.0 transformation are many, but most notable is his leadership in standing up our IFS business."

Intel revitalized its contract chip manufacturing business in early 2021 and renamed it Intel Foundry Services with the goal of competing with TSMC and Samsung, the world's two largest contract chip manufacturers that make chips for the likes of Intel rivals, including AMD, Nvidia, and Apple. In his email to employees, Gelsinger credited Thakur for establishing a "seasoned leadership team with veterans from leading foundries" like TSMC and Samsung. He added that the Intel Foundry Services leader also "secured major customer wins in the mobile and auto segments" and helped the company win the US government's RAMP-C award along with four customers for chip designs on its 18A node. "Since Q2, IFS has expanded engagements to seven of the 10 largest foundry customers coupled with consistent pipeline growth to include 35 customer test chips," Gelsinger said. "This is tremendous progress in only 20 months!" Intel has a pending $5.4 billion acquisition of Israeli chip manufacturer Tower Semiconductor, notes The Register. "Analysts responding to the news of Thakur's resignation said the move is likely happening because Intel plans to put Tower Semiconductor's management in charge of Intel Foundry Services." The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2023.

Re:

[keithdowsett]

Wow!! Someone who knows less about chip fabs than I do. Even a chemist like me knows that manufacturing glass (a mixture of molten silicates) and manufacturing chips (ultra pure silicon) are completely unrelated.

On a slightly more relevant note. There is currently a huge market for utility silicon which does not require the latest EUV technology. I assume Intel want to grab a slice of this pie by using their existing DUV fabs for contract work. Hopefully, this will provide the experience and revenue for

Re:

[Canberra1]

Will the silicon chips be Kosher with the new management. Can you hold communion with silicon wafers and wine? Will the sabbath get in the way of 24/7 production? Will the Intel cafeteria remove pork and non-kosher options - like white coffee or cheese on a pattie? On a slightly more relevant note, TSMC has the secret recipe (Germanium added?) and the temperature mix. With a billion of free capital, I'm sure Dow could splurge and step up. As the shrinks continue, secret doping will have selective buyers p

Re: Dow Corning

[flyingfsck]

Nowadays Dow Corning is a Chinese brand used for ordinary glassware.

The Shuffling Of The Suits Continues

[zenlessyank]

I wonder what it will really take to shake up Intel. At this rate Intel won't be inside anything in 10 years.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

I wonder what it will really take to shake up Intel. At this rate Intel won't be inside anything in 10 years.

Well, we can hope. They've been trailing AMD technically for decades, and would have already been gone if not for their anticompetitive actions over basically their entire history.

Re:

[DrMrLordX]

Decades? More like since 2017. Prior to that, Intel was easily ahead of AMD from 2006-2016. But yes Intel is seriously on the ropes, and their SDSi initiative is just horrible.

Re:

[Tom Arneberg]

Decades? More like since 2017. Prior to that, Intel was easily ahead of AMD from 2006-2016.

2016 was the year Intel laid me off. Coincidence?

Re:

[Penguinoflight]

You're just bitter and too old to accept change. Surely the MBA's wouldn't replace the tenured engineers with foreigners for greater control through indentured servitude, and value the opinions of beancounters over experience and superior ideas. They wouldn't achieve a rank of Master in business administration if that was their only trick.

Re: The Shuffling Of The Suits Continues

[St.Creed]

I think not!

Re:

[douglasfir77]

This is not "shuffling" since one is leaving and new soon to be purchased leadership looks to be coming in. So your comment is not valid.

Possible Reality...

[beheaderaswp]

Well... we may be entering the twilight zone regarding Intel.

They may not continue to be a leader. And my suspicion is that this will happen sooner than later.

Behind on process, fingers in too may businesses, failed (or failing) discrete graphics business, execution of Optane, shifting management, fleeing engineers, strong competition, and a corporate arrogance that is allowing other companies to take little bites of their business.

Not to mention the idiot move of selling fabrication services. What are they thinking? They are dying in their core competencies and they want to complicate the business model by being a contract fab?

The whole thing smells like "Executive Panic".

At least that's how I see it...

Re:

[IWantMoreSpamPlease]

>>... failed (or failing) discrete graphics business...

I may very well be out of the loop, but from what (little) I understand, their discrete gpus haven't even hit the general market yet...so how could it be failing?

Re:

[timeOday]

It's called the Intel Arc.

I'll go ahead and post a link to newegg [newegg.com] since I'm on slashdot so it seems fitting somehow.

Re:

[IWantMoreSpamPlease]

Thank you, I had no idea they were already available. The YT tech channels I follow never made mention of these, only focusing on AMD/nVidia stuff.
Off to find out how well they compete

Re:

[ArchieBunker]

The whole thing smells like "Executive Panic".

At least that's how I see it...

There is no panic going on. It's just modern business practices. All the higher ups get paid as pieces of the company are sold off. Eventually the company is gutted and the execs get bonuses when the name itself is sold off. The cycle starts over again with a new victim.

Re:

[iggymanz]

eh, why not make foundries be others' responsibility and focus on design? That's what their main competitor is doing!

Going to TSMC Arizona?

[bill_mcgonigle]

The timing is coincidental, at least.

Re:

[DrMrLordX]

Remember this guy runs IFS, which is side of Intel's foundry that actually tries to get customers to fab their designs on Intel nodes. Traditionally Intel has been an IDM which basically means their processes are developed for the products they design and vice versa. It has been difficult for Intel to attract customers in the past. Randhir Thakur's job was to improve IFS in Intel's move to IFS 2.0, making it easier for customers to adhere to Intel's design rules, as well as offer customers IP blocks for

Re:

[stabiesoft]

Tend to agree. The actual workers rarely get credit these days. The changeup could be as simple as Thakur doesn't get along with Gelsinger, who only returned last year. I have some faith Gelsinger is going to get Intel back, some. Intel has fallen a long way, and may be too far to come back. But everyone thought AMD was dead too for a long time. And AMD had nowhere near the resources Intel still has.

Could be a sign of a future spin-off.

[DrMrLordX]

Just a hunch, but it seems like Intel may be ready to call it quits on the foundry game altogether. In which case they may be preparing to spin off all their fabs with the help of IFS 2.0 and Tower Semiconductor's C-suite.

Sheer uninformed speculation...

[jenningsthecat]

I wonder if he's moving to TSMC, now that they're building a fab in Arizona. I imagine a guy like Thakur who both knows the industry and has lots of local contacts would be very valuable to them.

Taking on TMSC and Samsung?

[gweihir]

Intel seems to suffer from delusions. That ship has sailed 5..10 years ago.