Intel: Optane division will not be discontinued after all

There was a lot of excitement when Pat Gelsinger informed the public that he was not a big fan of memory solutions. Industry experts assumed that this was the stab in the back for the Optane series after the words of Intel’s freshly minted CEO. Now the chipmaker has set the record straight and even announced that it is already working on the latest generation of memory chips.

Development stop would have made sense

The rumors that Intel might turn its back on its Optane series are not new. After all, the US company has been silent about its memory chips for quite some time. Things came to a head when Gelsinger, as the tech company’s brand new CEO, clarified:

“I never want to be in memory, you see I’m doing everything I can to exit our memory businesses in that regard.”

You don’t have to be an expert to read out that Intel no longer had anything to do with its memory division. This also did well-known analysts of the memory market as Tom Coughlin is one. He specified this with the interpretation that the chip manufacturer most likely wants to turn its back on its Optane series. This would make a fitting overall picture in combination with the long dry spell in the memory chip sector. Accordingly, he also predicted that the company would only sell leftover models of its second-generation Optane and then exit the business altogether.

Intel denies rumor

A look at the chipmaker’s other actions would also have fit a stop to the Optane series. For example, Intel already sold large parts of its memory products to the large manufacturer SK Hynx in the past. The economic successes were too bad. A look at Intel Optane reveals a similar picture. For example, the US company lost a proud $576 million with the memory chip business in the 2020 fiscal year. Intel itself is almost snubbed by the speculations of a possible exit from the Optane business. When asked by the tech website “Blocks and Files,” the chipmaker commented on the rumors as follows:

“We continue to work closely with customers and partners on memory and storage technologies, including enabling our third-generation Optane products with Sapphire Rapids. In addition, we are enabling the ecosystem to be ready for key technologies such as memory tiering over CXL.”

Consequently, we can probably still expect a third generation Intel Optane chip in the foreseeable future.