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.

According to ITHome, Solidigm has officially ended production of its P44 Pro and P41 Plus solid-state drives, marking its complete withdrawal from the consumer SSD market. These were the only consumer SSDs released under the Solidigm brand since the company's formation. The company has also removed all consumer drive listings from its website, which now focuses entirely on data center and enterprise storage solutions. The decision follows earlier developments in October 2023, when Solidigm reportedly dissolved its consumer SSD division and laid off staff working on consumer drives, Tom's Hardware learned from an unnamed source familiar with the matter. This has been reportedly done to stop consumer SSD development and re-route resources to enterprise SSD, which drives more revenue.

The shutdown reportedly occurred abruptly, just before the planned launch of a new consumer SSD that had already been distributed to reviewers. Consumer SSD space has been recording a lot of uncertainty recently, as larger brands have been able to launch consumer SSDs while enjoying profits from the enterprise buildout, and AI expansion is requiring massive storage units. These larger brands can distill some of their products into consumer-focused sections without much impact on margins, as the enterprise is willing to pay top Dollar for SSDs. Sadly, Solidgm has not chosen that path and is instead going all-in on the enterprise segment. Sadly, fewer SSD makers in the consumer space means less competition, so we hope that this trend doesn't continue.

Ubisoft has reversed its February decision to be a presence at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, instead it will be holding a separate event in the city with coincidental timing. Ubisoft spokesperson Heather Haefner yesterday provided a statement to The Verge: "E3 has fostered unforgettable moments across the industry throughout the years. While we initially intended to have an official E3 presence, we've made the subsequent decision to move in a different direction, and will be holding a Ubisoft Forward Live event on June 12 in Los Angeles. We look forward to sharing more details with our players very soon."

Ubisoft had previously confirmed its attendance in a statement to Games Industry.biz earlier this year: "E3 is a special moment for our industry and we are excited to showcase our strong line-up in Los Angeles in June. We are still finalizing the details of our plans and look forward to sharing more soon." CEO Yves Guillemot has also hinted in the recent past that he wanted the company to attend E3 2023, but this was prior to the whole event being given the go ahead by co-organizers Entertainment Software Association and ReedPOP. E3 2023 is set to be the first in-person Electronic Entertainment Expo event held since 2019.

Smartphone specialists Oppo and OnePlus have responded to the rumors of both companies exiting several European markets, as well as the UK. In a joint statement provided to Android Authority the message was a promise to stay put in 2023: "OPPO and OnePlus are committed to all the existing European markets. We had a great start in 2023 with the successful launches of several products in Europe and have a line-up of upcoming products for the rest of the year. As always, OPPO and OnePlus will continue to provide more innovative products and the best-in-class service for users moving forward."

Starting yesterday, industry tipsters issued posts about Oppo and OnePlus withdrawing from markets in Europe, with more immediate exits from key territories - France, Germany, Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The cited reasons for exiting the aforementioned markets include a massive slowdown in regional sales and legal cases levied by competitors in regard to patent infringements on Oppo's part. The lawsuits that were levied by Nokia have resulted in a number of Oppo and OnePlus devices being banned from sale in Germany.