Intel has appointed Hewlett Packard Enterprise executive Justin Hotard to head its data centre and artificial intelligence group, bringing in an outsider to run a division crucial to the chip maker’s turnaround efforts.

Hotard was responsible for HPE’s high-performance computing, AI and labs. At Intel, he’ll oversee some of the company’s most important products, including the Xeon server processors that were dominant in data centres, but have lost share to rival offerings and in-house efforts by customers.

The former NCR and Motorola executive will also head up Intel’s efforts to cut into Nvidia’s lead in AI by overseeing its graphics and accelerator chip offerings, Intel said on Wednesday in a statement.

A comeback in data centre products is critical to CEO Pat Gelsinger’s plans to restore Intel to leadership of the chip industry. While data centre chips are a relatively low-volume part of the industry, processors and accelerators can sell for tens of thousands of dollars each, making them enormously profitable.

Hotard, who will join Intel on 1 February, succeeds company veteran Sandra Rivera. Rivera began Monday as head of Intel’s programmable solutions business, which the company separated into a standalone unit. Intel said it intends to sell a portion of the business to the public within two to three years.

Separately, Intel announced that another executive from its data centre unit, Arun Subramaniyan, had departed to run Articul8, a new AI company formed by the chip maker and investors including DigitalBridge Group and Mindset Ventures. — (c) 2024 Bloomberg LP