Intel experienced another leadership setback on Monday when Justin Hotard, who led its Data Center and AI (DCAI) division said he was leaving to become Nokia's CEO. Hotard joined Intel in early 2024 and worked there for just over a year. He will take over from Pekka Lundmark at Nokia on April 1. In his short time at Intel, Hotard oversaw the release of Intel's Sierra Forest E-core and Granite Rapids P-core Xeon 6 platforms. These helped Intel catch up to AMD in core count for the first time since 2017. Intel has temporarily appointed Karin Eibschitz Segal, an 18-year company veteran and co-CEO at Intel Israel, as the interim chief of DCAI.

However, Justin Hotard's exit comes as the DCAI division faces several problems. Not long ago, Intel said it would push back the launch of its next-generation Clearwater Forest Xeons to the first half of 2026 blaming low demand. The company also scrapped its Falcon Shores accelerators to focus on a future rack-scale platform called Jaguar Shores. These setbacks came after Intel fellow Sailesh Kottapalli left for Qualcomm last month. Kottapalli had worked at Intel for 28 years and played a key role in developing many Xeon server processors.Intel's Data Center and AI (DCAI) sector has been facing larger issues, particularly in the AI accelerator market. While AMD had been delivering about 5 billion dollars worth of Instinct accelerators last year, Intel's Gaudi AI accelerators failed to meet the $500 million target set by the former CEO Pat Gelsinger. The third-generation Gaudi accelerators, announced last April, faced timing challenges as they reached the market just as NVIDIA's Blackwell and AMD's MI325X accelerators did the same. Gaudi3's successor turned out to be just a test chip, so Intel won't have a competitive AI accelerator until at least 2026.

However, Intel's main focus and immediate problem is not who leads its Data Center and AI division as the company has yet to find a permanent CEO after Gelsinger's abrupt withdrawal. In the Q4 earnings call of Intel, co-CEO of interim David Zinsner hinted that while the board searches for a new CEO, no new information is to be reported. There have been numerous talks in the market about possible candidates with GlobalFoundries CEO Thomas Caulfield and Chief Executive Officer recently announcing that he transitioned to Executive Chairman amongst the many. Zinsner said in an earlier statement that Intel would require its next CEO to have foundry experience "A key requirement for the next CEO of Intel is foundry expertise".