What simply occurred? Former Intel CEO Brian Krzanich has landed a brand new high-profile gig as the top of automotive AI expertise agency Cerence. Nonetheless, Cerence’s bulletins celebrating its new rent stirred up intense criticism and backlash from many.
It began with an official Cerence assertion final week, proudly touting Krzanich’s appointment as CEO and board member, highlighting his success and 36-year tenure at Intel. The corporate famous that Intel’s annual income noticed notable enchancment underneath Krzanich’s management from 2013-2018.
“Throughout his tenure, he led Intel into rising areas starting from cloud computing and synthetic intelligence to autonomous driving because the enterprise scaled from $52 billion to greater than $70 billion in income,” Cerence boasted.
Arun Sarin, Cerence’s board chairman, additionally proclaimed Krzanich a superb alternative to steer the corporate’s transition, stating, “His management expertise and experience in AI and cloud computing make Brian the best chief to information Cerence via this transition, capitalize on Cerence’s progress alternatives and drive shareholder worth.”
Nonetheless, the celebratory tone shortly soured as tech insiders voiced outrage over the hiring resolution on social media. Tom’s {Hardware} famous that the backlash grew so heated that Cerence needed to shut down feedback on their LinkedIn announcement.
One of the vital scathing critiques got here from Jonathan Huang, a former Intel veteran now at Apple. Huang first blasted Cerence, saying that the board of administrators may need “misplaced their marbles.” He snarkily criticized Krzanich for “perfecting the artwork of creating a large number” and missing imaginative and prescient whereas main Intel.
Huang accused the ex-CEO of mismanaging the chip big with “questionable acquisitions and share buybacks” funded by shedding gifted staff. All of that is at the price of Intel persevering with to get pounded by its rivals like Nvidia. The layoffs bothered him essentially the most. He said that these staff misplaced their jobs for no good motive apart from Krzanich’s poor methods. The submit sparked a heated dialogue on X/Twitter, too.
Mockingly, Intel didn’t fireplace Krzanich over efficiency points. It supplied him the prospect to resign in 2018 after violating firm coverage by having a consensual office relationship. Whereas Cerence hoped including an skilled tech titan would bolster its AI ambitions, the extraordinary backlash suggests many are unwilling to forgive Krzanich’s blended legacy at Intel.
Krzanich will get credit score for pivoting the corporate towards IoT and cloud through the normal decline within the PC market. He is additionally recognized for enhancing Intel’s inventory by a large 120 % as CEO.
Nonetheless, his resolution to skip scaling EUV manufacturing instruments contributed to delays in getting 10nm chips out the door. This misstep allowed rivals like TSMC and Samsung to grab course of management and gave AMD an edge that eroded Intel’s market dominance. Intel’s fortunes by no means totally rebounded after that.
Though Pat Gelsinger took the helm in 2021, aiming to proper the ship, the corporate continues to battle. The state of affairs arguably added an exclamation level when Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s internet price lately eclipsed Intel’s total market valuation.
