Randhir Thakur, the head of Intel’s contract chip production unit, has resigned, according to a report by The register that has been confirmed by Intel. He will continue to lead Intel Foundry Services through Q1 2023 to ensure a smooth transition to a new leader.
Pat Gelsinger, Intel’s chief executive, sent an email to company employees thanking Randhir Thakur for his contribution to the establishment of IFS and his instrumental role in the development of the company. IDM 2.0 business model.
“Randhir has been a key member of the leadership team for two and a half years and has held multiple leadership positions since joining us in 2017,” Intel’s CEO wrote in the email quoted by Intel. The register. “His contributions to our [Integrated Device Manufacturing] transformation 2.0 are many, but most notable is his leadership in setting up our IFS business.”
Indeed, Randhir Thakur has done a lot of things he can be proud of at IFS. During his tenure, Intel announced the impending acquisition of Tower Semiconductor (which would immediately make Intel one of the largest contract chipmakers). He was also instrumental in signing deals with giant chip developers like MediaTek, which also happens to be one of TSMC’s biggest customers. This contract is a major victory for IFS, which also won a contract with the US Department of Defense for the Rapid Assured Microelectronics Prototypes – Commercial (RAMP-C) program.
But IFS is far from an ideal contract chipmaker, at least from what we know about Intel. process technology roadmap to 2025. The company’s plans announced so far largely align its production nodes with its own manufacturing processes, which is good for Intel as an Integrated Design Manufacturer (IDM) player, but might not be enough to persuade companies like Apple, AMD and Nvidia to use IFS. services for their high volume products.
The Intel Foundry Services BU earned $171 million in the third fiscal quarter of 2022, which may not seem like much given that it represents about 1.1% of the company’s turnover. We’ll update this post as we learn more.
