Intel recently announced that it has hired former SK Hynix president and CEO Seok-Hee Lee as executive vice president of Intel Foundry. He will be fully responsible for advanced packaging, system integration, back-end technology development and back-end manufacturing, and will report directly to Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan. Intel said the move is aimed at strengthening the critical role of advanced packaging in artificial intelligence and high-performance computing systems through dedicated business units and leadership teams.
According to an announcement issued by Intel, the company is separating the advanced packaging business and creating a focused organization with dedicated leadership to comply with the increasingly important and complex trend of packaging technology in terms of performance, energy efficiency and heterogeneous integration. Intel believes that advanced packaging and system-level integration are becoming the "defining capabilities" of next-generation computing systems and are the core pillars of providing customers with differentiated system-level innovation.
Chen Liwu pointed out in the statement that as the demand for system-level integration accelerates in the fields of AI and high-performance computing, the importance of advanced packaging and system integration continues to increase. He said that Li Xixi has extensive leadership experience in large-scale and highly complex technology and manufacturing organizations and has excellent execution capabilities. His joining will help Intel further strengthen its system integration capabilities and more closely couple advanced logic, storage, network and other components to create high-performance computing systems for Intel's foundry customers.
Intel also emphasized that the company is preparing to bring a variety of advanced packaging technologies, including EMIB‑T and HBI, to large-scale mass production by customers and partners, and the new personnel appointments are to support the layout of this critical stage. By building a scalable operating model, Intel hopes to gain greater resilience in its technology development and manufacturing engines and provide customers with higher delivery speed, consistency and predictability.
Li Xixi is "returning" to Intel this time. In his early years, he held engineering leadership positions at Intel and academia, and then worked in the storage and semiconductor industries for many years. Before joining Intel, he served as the president and CEO of SK On, and before that, he served as the president and CEO of SK Hynix. He is regarded as a semiconductor veteran with deep experience in advanced process technology and large-scale manufacturing.
In the statement, Li Xixi said that as the demand for system-level integration accelerates in AI and high-performance computing scenarios, Intel has a unique leading position in the field of advanced packaging. He said he was "happy to be home" and looked forward to working with the Intel team to drive the company's continued improvement in technology leadership, manufacturing capabilities and customer commitment to create a new phase of growth in this key business area.
In this organizational adjustment, Naga Chandrasekaran, currently Intel’s executive vice president of wafer foundry, will continue to report to Chen Liwu and be responsible for front-end technology development and front-end manufacturing business, focusing on accelerating the ramp-up of Intel 18A, Intel 14A and subsequent process nodes. He will also continue to coordinate design enablement and end-to-end customer-facing business enablement functions to support the long-term growth of Intel's foundry.
Intel said that this newly established and scalable operating structure is part of the company's commitment to strengthening its technology development and manufacturing capabilities and is designed to enhance the confidence of customers and partners in Intel's ability to deliver on schedule, stably, and predictably. The company also takes this opportunity to signal that advanced packaging and front-end process development will form a clearer division of labor and collaboration in the next few years to address system-level challenges in the era of AI and high-performance computing.
Intel also announced that Navid Shahriari, executive vice president of the company, will officially retire after 37 years of service to the company, ending his long career at Intel. Intel expressed its gratitude for his contribution to the company's development over decades and said his retirement was part of the personnel arrangement made in the context of this organizational and leadership adjustment.