Intel got out of the memory business in 1985. Forty-one years later, its new CEO is quietly suggesting the company might get back in.
During a recent TechSurge podcast appearance, Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan described new memory architectures as a “pet project” and flagged the sector as a strategic opportunity in an AI-dominated semiconductor landscape. He stopped short of announcing a formal re-entry, but the breadcrumbs he’s leaving are hard to ignore.
From commodity to kingmaker
The explosion of demand from AI data centers has turned memory into one of the tightest bottlenecks in the entire compute stack. Current projections suggest memory supply will be effectively sold out for at least the next two years, stretching into 2027 or 2028.
Tan acknowledged this transformation directly, noting that memory has evolved from being viewed as a pure commodity into something far more valuable.
