Intel Corp. is splitting its graphic chips unit into two, the company said on Wednesday, as it realigns the business to better compete with Nvidia Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices.
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The consumer graphics unit will be combined with Intel's client computing group, which makes chips for personal computers, while accelerated computing teams will join its data center and artificial intelligence (AI) business, the company said.
The move comes as Intel doubles down on accelerated computing, a growing segment dominated by Nvidia as AI use surges.
"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.
Raja Koduri, who led the graphic chips unit, will return to his role as chief architect and oversee the company's long-term technology and chip design strategy.
Koduri, who has led graphics technology ventures at iPhone maker Apple and AMD, joined Intel in 2017.
Earlier this year, Intel launched the Gaudi2 chip focused on artificial intelligence computing, and the Greco chip for inferencing work, taking an AI algorithm and making a prediction or identifying an object. The launches came as the chip manufacturer made a push into the AI chip market dominated by Nvidia Corp.
In October, Intel cut several jobs after a slowdown in the PC market sent the global chipmaker and PC vendors reeling. At the time, the loss of Apple as one of its major clients, as the Cupertino-based company decided to put its own Apple Silicon chips inside Macs in 2020, was cited as one of the factors behind Intel losing market share to rivals like AMD and Nvidia.
