Intel has a new chief architect working on new GPUs

[Alfonso Maruccia]

Forward-looking: Intel has traditionally sold large volumes of x86 CPUs for building new PC systems, but the industry is now moving in a completely different direction. The Santa Clara-based company recently confirmed that enterprise products are being prioritized over consumer chips, and even the company's new GPU efforts will likely follow the same path.

During the recent Cisco AI Summit, Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan announced that the company has appointed a new "chief GPU architect." Tan did not disclose the executive's name at the event, but subsequent reports confirmed that former Qualcomm executive Eric Demmers will lead the new venture.

Tan noted that Demmers had to be "persuaded" to join Intel. Hired last month, Demmers will report directly to Executive Vice President Kevork Kechichian, who manages Intel's Data Center Group – a strong indication of the type of GPU products Demmers is expected to develop.

While Intel's consumer GPU efforts under the Arc brand are already underway, the company still lacks a dedicated solution for AI acceleration workloads. Demmers is likely to oversee this segment of Intel's business.

Earlier this year, Intel confirmed that its high-performance Xeon CPUs for enterprise and workstation applications are already consuming most of the company's manufacturing capacity, while consumer CPUs in the Core line have been deprioritized.

Intel unveiled its latest GPU architecture for data center applications in October. Named Crescent Island, the technology is specifically designed to handle AI workloads, including inference tasks. The new Xe architecture also promises higher memory capacity and energy-efficient performance. Like other companies in the tech industry, Intel is now focusing heavily on agentic AI, heterogeneous systems, and AI-enabled PCs.

Intel's previous efforts with GPUs for AI acceleration have had limited success. Gaudi 3, launched in April 2024, failed to reach the company's target revenue of $500 million by the end of the year.

It remains unclear which GPU architecture Demmers will be leading. However, at the Cisco event, Tan confirmed that Intel's priorities will align with industry trends.

AI technology presents unprecedented challenges for both compute and memory products, and the CEO does not expect the current supply-demand imbalance to ease until at least 2028.

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Intel has a new chief architect working on new GPUs

 

[NumberNine]

As much as it pains me to admit, jumping ship from gaming to feed the machine learning fire might not be such an awful move considering the state of AAA game development. GPUs are fine, make better games.

 

[opckieran]

I think it's safe to say that Intel has righted the ship at this point.

 

[yRaz]

As much as it pains me to admit, jumping ship from gaming to feed the machine learning fire might not be such an awful move considering the state of AAA game development. GPUs are fine, make better games.

Aside from rouge trader, I think the most modern game I played was CyberPunk 2077. Like seriously sat down and played. I haven't been able to spend more than 3-4 hours playing a modern AAA title and then I don't even think about them again. They all look the same because they're all using UE5 and they think good graphics is a fix for shallow gameplay. I dropped almost 300 hours into 40k Rouge Trader over about a year and I got it on sale for $20 on steam. my 6700xt gets me laughed at but it still plays everything I play at 4k120 max settings. It struggles in newer titles, but there isn't a single newer title really worth playing. There is no incentive to upgrade. It's not that I can't afford it, it's just that there aren't games coming out that makes me think the $1000 cost to upgrade my GPU is worth it. I might sang a 9070XT before prices go up too much, but that might last m 5 or more years at this rate. There is 1 game I am willing to upgrade to play and that is elderscrolls 6. I will buy a new PC to play that. Aside from that, I;m happy playing EvE and ESO. I was actually thinking of giving Baulders gate 3 another play as 40kRT got me in the mood for more turnbased CRPGs, but my 6700XT plays that fine at 4k120 max.

 

[NumberNine]

Aside from rouge trader, I think the most modern game I played was CyberPunk 2077. Like seriously sat down and played. I haven't been able to spend more than 3-4 hours playing a modern AAA title and then I don't even think about them again. They all look the same because they're all using UE5 and they think good graphics is a fix for shallow gameplay. I dropped almost 300 hours into 40k Rouge Trader over about a year and I got it on sale for $20 on steam. my 6700xt gets me laughed at but it still plays everything I play at 4k120 max settings. It struggles in newer titles, but there isn't a single newer title really worth playing. There is no incentive to upgrade. It's not that I can't afford it, it's just that there aren't games coming out that makes me think the $1000 cost to upgrade my GPU is worth it. I might sang a 9070XT before prices go up too much, but that might last m 5 or more years at this rate. There is 1 game I am willing to upgrade to play and that is elderscrolls 6. I will buy a new PC to play that. Aside from that, I;m happy playing EvE and ESO. I was actually thinking of giving Baulders gate 3 another play as 40kRT got me in the mood for more turnbased CRPGs, but my 6700XT plays that fine at 4k120 max.

I just got into Rogue Trader a couple of weeks ago and I am infatuated with it. Great game.

 

[Alpine7995]

The fact that they had to persuade someone to be chief GPU architect tells you everything.

 

[human7]

The fact that they had to persuade someone to be chief GPU architect tells you everything.

They probably mean the pay package and such rather than persuasion on taking the role per se.

 

[OortCloud]

Anything that eats into NVidia's monopoly is fine with me - although they do weirdly own a stake in Intel now which I can't figure out at all...

 

[disinfect8280]

I might sang a 9070XT before prices go up too much, but that might last m 5 or more years at this rate.

I think that ship sailed. A month ago I could have grabbed an open box at Microcenter for $519, now it is $719 for the same GPU. And this is the Reaper, supposed to be lowest cost card, now $799 new.

 

[yRaz]

I think that ship sailed. A month ago I could have grabbed an open box at Microcenter for $519, now it is $719 for the same GPU. And this is the Reaper, supposed to be lowest cost card, now $799 new.

you don't understand, I'm expecting them to go over $1000, the 5070ti is already selling over $1000. we're headed into another GPU shortage. Nvidia has also said the might no release the 60 series until fall of 2027

 

[letsgoiowa]

If anyone else here has tried to use Intel hardware for AI before like I have, boy they really didn't take it seriously. MASSIVE incompetence on their end. They had what seems like a single person on their Ollama support (?????) so random people in the community had to update it after it fell 6 months out of date regularly. It only supports an extremely limited amount of models and they aren't bothering aiding companies in converting to Vulkan for compatibility. They simply have nobody on the software side and it's hilarious.

 

[disinfect8280]

you don't understand, I'm expecting them to go over $1000, the 5070ti is already selling over $1000. we're headed into another GPU shortage. Nvidia has also said the might no release the 60 series until fall of 2027

You may be right. Don't think anyone will purchase at those prices, but I don't think they care either.
Good point - also completely dropped any Super or Ti plans and already dropped one of the launch models as well.