AnalysisIsrael inside: Intel hangs its future on the Israeli branch
Analysis
Israel inside: Intel hangs its future on the Israeli branch
Karin Eibschitz-Segal & Daniel Benatar, the replacements of retiring CEO of Intel Israel, Yaniv Garty, are each responsible for strategic areas in global Intel
The decision to appoint Karin Eibschitz-Segal and Daniel Benatar as co-CEO's in place of the retiring Yaniv Garty emphasizes the importance of Intel Israel for the future of the global company.
This is not only implied by this decision, but by more and more Israelis finding themselves in key positions in the chip manufacturer. 10% of the headquarter team that surrounds the company's CEO Pat Gelsinger consists of Israelis.
Intel Israel has become an essential part of Gelsinger's growth strategy. He appointed quite a few Intel Israel graduates to key positions - not only at the top level, but also, and especially, at the second level. These are the important ranks of the company, those who implement the CEO's strategy on the ground - the IDM 2.0 road map presented in 2021. Intel needs the intellectual flexibility of the Israelis to move forward.
The global chip market has undergone major upheavals in the past two years. These also burdened Intel, which was led by visionless CEOs in the last decade, who caused it to miss the mobile chip revolution, the transition to artificial intelligence, and mainly saw its technology fall behind its competitors who succeeded in developing processors that are smaller and smaller and suitable for modern reality.
Although Intel still holds the lion's share of the market, especially in the data center and PC worlds, now there are alternatives there too, and in some cases they are just as good as the ones offered by Intel.
Intel has several main rivals, each competing in a different area. Qualcomm, AMD and ARM compete with it in the worlds of computer processors. The latter does not produce the processors, but provides the technology that allows manufacturers such as Qualcomm and Apple to produce their chips. Apple proved that these processors are also suitable for use in personal computers, Microsoft adapted Windows to work with ARM chips, and now many PC manufacturers are looking into the possibility of using these chips like Apple.
AMD and Nvidia compete with it in the worlds of graphics chips. Although Intel is the largest graphics chip maker of all, most of its products are based on chips that are embedded in processors rather than GPUs for gamers or Bitcoin mining, where the big money is.
Nvidia also competes with it in the worlds of artificial intelligence processors - and here it has a significant lead over Intel. The Israeli company Habana Labs was supposed to help Intel beat Nvidia, but this has not happen so far.
In order to strengthen Intel Israel, it was apparently decided to raise the ranks of the CEOs of the Israeli division. No longer a local CEO, but CEOs who are each responsible for strategic areas in global Intel. Karin Eibschitz-Segal, for example, is not only the CEO of the company's development centers in Israel, but mainly manages the company's chip testing field worldwide. That is, she is responsible for Intel's product being of the expected quality. To say that this is a position with great responsibility is an understatement.
Co-CEO, Daniel Benatar, is co-CEO of Intel's manufacturing plants worldwide. That is, he is directly responsible for the company's production activities all over the world - factories in Ireland, Arizona, Oregon, Israel, and soon also those in Germany and Ohio. Again, this is a much more senior position than the CEO of Intel Israel.
These appointments prove beyond any doubt that Intel Israel is considered an essential part of Intel's global operations more than any of its other external divisions. Now, with 34 Israelis in the positions of vice presidents, Intel is equipped with the manpower that should at least help it win.
