Intel's cost-cutting measures look set to continue as it's reportedly looking to divest its network and edge businesses.
www.capacitymedia.com, May. 21, 2025 –
Reuters reports that the embattled firm is looking to sideline parts of the business not part of CEO Lip-Bu Tan’s turnaround plans.
Intel’s Network and Edge (NEX) Group, which focuses on producing hardware for telecom equipment, networking infrastructure, and edge computing applications, was once seen as a growth engine, but is now reportedly being considered for the chopping block.
The company is believed to have held discussions with interested third parties. Those talks were, however, considered at very early stages, with no formal process launched or banking partner hired at the time of writing.
Intel has reportedly yet to decide whether it will sell a stake in the NEX unit or partner with another firm to maintain some part of the business group.
Intel had moved results for its NEX unit into its data centre and PC group, which did see an 8% rise in its latest earnings results.
The unit did, however, generate $5.8 billion in revenue in 2024, but has faltered in recent years, given the market dominance of competitors like Broadcom.
The fate of the NEX Group comes as Tan, who took over from Pat Gelsinger late last year, is looking to double down on parts of Intel’s business that it has historically excelled in, such as microprocessors for PCs and data centre chips.
The firm has already divested from one area not part of that plan, as it offloaded a majority stake in the programmable logic device unit Altera to Silver Lake in a deal worth $8.75 billion.
Intel’s foundry business was previously also marked for divestment, but Tan recently led a 180-degree turn, labelling it as now being central to the company’s turnaround plans.
“Our No. 1 job is to listen to our customers and earn their trust by creating solutions to enable their success,” Tan said during Intel’s recent Foundry Direct Connect event.