Intel is undergoing a period of significant transformation, marked by leadership changes and a strategic shift in direction. This month, Safroadu Yeboah-Amankwah, the company's chief strategy officer, will be stepping down from his role on June 30, 2025. This departure signifies a key moment in Intel's ongoing efforts to revitalize its position in the semiconductor industry.
Yeboah-Amankwah has held the position of chief strategy officer since 2020, overseeing growth initiatives, strategic partnerships, and equity investments. His responsibilities included leading Intel's Global Strategy Office and collaborating with the executive team to shape and implement growth strategies across the company. Some of his duties will be transitioned to Sachin Katti, who is now the chief technology and AI officer. Additionally, Intel Capital will now report directly to CEO Lip-Bu Tan.
This leadership restructuring occurs under the direction of Lip-Bu Tan, who became CEO in March 2025. Tan's appointment and subsequent changes reflect a broader effort to address manufacturing setbacks and missed opportunities in the mobile and AI sectors. Intel's recent challenges include a substantial annual net loss of $18.8 billion in 2024, the first since 1986, highlighting the urgency for strategic changes.
Tan has initiated a comprehensive restructuring of Intel's leadership and organizational framework. Key business units, including the Data Center Group, now report directly to him, streamlining decision-making processes. This is part of an ongoing effort to flatten the company's structure and remove organizational complexity. Tan aims to cut down on what he views as "organizational complexity and bureaucratic processes" that have been hindering innovation. He believes that it has taken too long to make decisions, and new ideas have not been given enough room or resources to incubate.
The company is also undergoing a cultural reset, shedding its image of being slow and process-bound. Intel aims to foster an "engineering-first" culture that is lean, responsive, and innovation-driven. This involves reducing management layers, eliminating non-core units, and empowering engineers with more decision-making authority.
Intel is strategically refocusing on high-impact sectors such as AI, custom chip designs, and third-party chip manufacturing (IFS). The company is also recalibrating its product roadmap to deliver AI performance across the full stack, from the client to the cloud. Intel is also abandoning non-core products and underperforming projects. For example, Intel sold a majority stake in its Altera FPGA division to Silver Lake, signaling a sharper focus on CPUs and AI-centric GPU development.
As part of its restructuring plan, Intel plans to lay off approximately 21,000 employees starting in Q2 2025, following a previous cut of 15,000 employees. These cuts are designed to flatten bloated management structures and eliminate slow decision-making layers. The layoffs target redundant roles, particularly in middle management, with the aim of protecting and retaining engineering talent.
Intel's strategic shift also involves targeting the high-growth edge AI market. The company is positioning itself to compete effectively in this emerging AI frontier by developing optimized hardware and cultivating an open ecosystem through software enablement and partnerships. Intel's upcoming Vision 2025 event will be a significant platform for discussing these strategies, with CEO Lip-Bu Tan delivering the opening keynote.
These changes represent a defining moment for Intel as it seeks to rebuild trust, regain market leadership, and reposition itself in the era of AI and data-driven technology. The company's success will depend on its ability to execute these strategies effectively and adapt to the evolving market landscape.
