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<\/p>\nIn a memo seen by CRN, Intel announces the hiring of Nicolas Dub\u00e9 as the head of data center systems and Eric Demers as the head of GPU engineering after revealing that Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan decided to move its AI accelerator chip team back into the Data Center Group.<\/p>\n
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Intel has hired a former Arm and HPE executive to take on a new leadership role focused on data center systems and solutions as part of the semiconductor giant\u2019s latest push into the AI infrastructure market, CRN has learned.<\/p>\n
The hiring of Nicolas Dub\u00e9 (pictured), most recently a senior vice president at Arm, was announced by the general manager of Intel\u2019s Data Center Group, Kevork Kechichian, in a Tuesday memo to employees. Intel shared a draft of the memo with CRN.<\/p>\n
In the memo, Kechichian announced the appointments of Dub\u00e9 and former Qualcomm executive Eric Demers\u2014who disclosed his move to lead GPU engineering for the chipmaker last Friday<\/a>\u2014after revealing that Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan decided to move the company\u2019s AI accelerator chip team back into the Data Center Group.<\/p>\n The move gives Kechichian\u2014who joined Intel to lead the Data Center Group last September<\/a> after working with Dub\u00e9 as an executive at Arm\u2014oversight of the company\u2019s AI accelerator chip efforts in competition with Nvidia and other rivals. Tan has called this one of his top priorities as part of the chipmaker\u2019s latest comeback plan after the company struggled to find customer traction for previous accelerator chip initiatives.<\/p>\n \u201cBy joining forces across Xeon, networking and telco, and now AI, these moves strengthen the x86 franchise, which is one of the keystone advantages as AI shifts toward inference and agentic systems,\u201d wrote Kechichian, who is an executive vice president.<\/p>\n As a result of this reorganization, Kechichian said that Jean-Didier Allegrucci, vice president of AI system-on-chip engineering, will report directly to him. Dub\u00e9 and Demers are also becoming direct reports for the data center leader.<\/p>\n Another Organizational Shake-Up For Intel\u2019s AI Efforts<\/p>\n The reorganization represents a reversal by Tan, who moved Intel\u2019s AI accelerator chip group out of what was previously called the Data Center and AI Group last April<\/a>, roughly a month after he became the chipmaker\u2019s CEO.<\/p>\n The move also shakes up Intel\u2019s organizational chart once again with Kechichian taking over responsibilities for the company\u2019s AI accelerator chip efforts from Tan. The CEO had taken charge<\/a> of Intel\u2019s AI group last November after the team\u2019s previous leader, Sachin Katti, left the chipmaker abruptly for a job at ChatGPT creator OpenAI.<\/p>\n In explaining Tan\u2019s decision to move Intel\u2019s AI accelerator chip team back into the Data Center Group, Kechichian said, \u201cAI and the modern data center are fundamentally linked.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCustomers are standardizing on complete AI platforms spanning compute, networking and software as the industry shifts toward inference and agentic solutions that run across the infrastructure stack. Xeon remains central across head nodes, edge deployments and many inference workloads,\u201d he wrote in the memo.<\/p>\n Intel Keeps Turning To Outsiders For Key AI And Data Center Roles<\/p>\n