CEO reorganizes Intel with new CTO and AI lead

Lip-Bu Tan, the newly appointed chief executive of Intel has launched a major leadership overhaul aimed at streamlining decision-making at the company, according to Reuters. With the new changes, Sachin Katti will become the chief technology office officer of Intel and will lead the company's AI effort. Also, the new management structure will get flatter and technical leaders from key groups will get direct lines with the CEO.

"Sachin Katti is expanding his role to include chief technology and AI officer for Intel," a spokesperson for Intel confirmed to Tom's Hardware. "As part of this, he will lead our overall AI strategy and AI product roadmap, as well as Intel Labs and our relationship with the startup and developer ecosystems."

New CTO

Up until now, Sachin Katti was in charge for Intel's networking and edge computing business unit and prior to that he was CTO of that unit. However, with the new expansion of his role, he will become chief technology officer of the whole company and the head of Intel Labs, therefore responsible for all the fundamental and applied research at Intel, which includes fundamental research for Intel's process technologies.

As part of his job as head of Intel Labs, Katti will also be in charge of relationships with startup and developer communities. Furthermore, Katti will also be in charge of Intel's new AI strategy and products roadmap.

The appointment of a dedicated AI chief is perhaps a long overdue job as Intel's AI strategy so far has not exactly been a success. Perhaps the problem is that AI was a part of Intel's data center unit and was considered as somewhat of a second-class citizen and therefore competed both for resources and management attention. With a dedicated lead, this could change, but keep in mind that Sachin Katti will not be solely dedicated to AI as he will be Intel's CTO as well as in charge of the edge and networking business.

Intel's chief technology officers (CTOs) role was originally focused on traditional technology development oversight, but in the recent years it got additional roles. Intel's 'classic' CTOs were Pat Gelsinger (2001 - 2009), Justin Rattner (2009 – 2013), and Michael Mayberry (2017 – 2021), who led the company's technology strategies that included CPU, systems, communications, and process technologies for making semiconductors. Intel had no CTO between 2013 and 2017 at all.

Greg Lavender, who served as Intel's CTO from 2021 to 2025, joined the company in 2021 from VMware and among his responsibilities as CTO were defining and executing Intel's software strategy across AI, accelerated computing and confidential computing, as well as leading the Intel Labs, Intel Federal LLC, and Intel Information Technology (IT) units.

That said, Katti will not be the first Intel CTO with additional responsibilities. However, Katti's CTO and AI responsibilities are both strategically important for the company's future and the fusion of the roles may be a strategic move by Lip-Bu Tan.

Technical leaders get direct line to CEO

While the Intel CTO role at Intel has become less apparent — and the vast responsibilities of Sachin Katti just prove that — Lip-Bu Tan is taking a more hands-on approach on development of key technologies and has established direct lines of communication with key technical leaders Rob Bruckner, Mike Hurley, and Lisa Pearce.

Let us detail their roles:

• Rob Bruckner serves as CTO of client platform architecture and definition (CPAD) organization within the Client Computing Group (CCG) that earns tens of billions of dollars a year.
• Mike Hurley serves as general manager of the client silicon engineering group (CSEG), overseeing end-to-end execution for all client products. His responsibilities include silicon architecture and design engineering, hardware and firmware IP development, as well as post-silicon validation and manufacturing readiness to ensure successful product delivery to market.
• Lisa Pearce is Intel's general manager of GPU and NPU hardware and software IP. This is not a key business division, but GPU and NPU hardware is strategically important for the company's CPUs, integrated and standalone GPUs, as well as a broader AI scope.

Previously, these executives reported to Michelle Johnston Holthaus, chief executive of Intel Products group overseeing everything from controller chips for client PCs all the way to premium data center-grade CPUs and server platforms. Yet, Michelle Johnston Holthaus is not going anywhere.

"I want to roll up my sleeves with the engineering and product teams so I can learn what is needed to strengthen our solutions," Tan is reported to have written by Reuters. "As Michelle and I drive this work, we plan to evolve and expand her role with more details to come in the future."

In addition, Intel is also changing how the CEO will work with the government affairs head: the new one will report directly to Lip-Bu Tan, which reflects the strategic importance of global regulatory relationships amid rising geopolitical tensions and ongoing tariffs on China. Bruce Andrews, who had previously worked for the U.S. Commerce Department under President Obama, left Intel after the U.S. elections in November.

Summary

All-in-all, Lip-Bu Tan has consolidated control over essentially all strategically important developments at Intel, including products development and their manufacturing. However, financial aspects are still overseen by Dave Zinsner, chief financial officer of Intel.

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