Intel is splitting up its graphics division as part of a reorganizing strategy to better compete in both the consumer and enterprise markets. The announcement (via Tom’s Hardware) states the move will see Raja Koduri who has presided as the Executive Vice President of the AXG division, return to his former role as Intel’s Chief Executive Officer. As Intel is splitting up the division into two units the consumer division will merge with the client computing group that makes chips for PCs while the accelerated computing team will be combined into Intel’s data center and AI business.
“Discrete graphics and accelerated computing are critical growth engines for Intel. With our flagship products now in production, we are evolving our structure to accelerate and scale their impact and drive go-to-market strategies with a unified voice to customers. This includes our consumer graphics teams joining our client computing group, and our accelerated computing teams joining our datacenter and AI group. In addition, Raja Koduri will return to the Intel Chief Architect role to focus on our growing efforts across CPU, GPU and AI, and accelerating high priority technical programs.”
Stock prices and Battlemage
The announcement came about on Wednesday morning and Intel stocks immediately shot up by 1.5 percent. This announcement follows a somewhat less-than-stellar launch of the company’s consumer Arc graphics cards. Despite a rocky launch, and its highest-tier Intel Arc A770 competing with 2-year-old mid-range offerings, things seemed to be getting better for the division with the recent release of DX9 Performance Update that improved performance for numerous games. Intel has said that it plans to stay committed to its consumer graphics cards, including the existing roadmap with its Battlemage Xe² HPG line being the next generation on the horizon. It was said the teams responsible for Battlemage are fully engaged in getting it finished and released on time. This will be crucial in not repeating the many delays Arc saw before it was finally launched.
“I don’t think it changes much (if anything) other than aligning the products with the respective sales organizations they fit with vs. having them as a discrete segment,” Wedbush Securities analyst Matthew Bryson said.