Intel’s Latest Chip Push Suggests the Company Has a Short Memory

It can be tough to recall that Intel Corp. invented the memory-chip business half a century ago. It gave up on the field for more than a decade, starting in the 1980s, and has struggled since returning in 2006 to match the success of Samsung Electronics Co. in the historically low-margin product category. The bigger issue for Intel, however, is that memory-chip technology hasn’t been advancing as quickly as more profitable gear. The limitations of memory chips are starting to lessen the value customers see in buying, say, Intel’s lucrative server chips, threatening a central profit center.

That’s why Bob Swan, Intel’s chief executive officer since late January, is sticking with his predecessor’s push into a new kind of chip, called Optane, which the company says doesn’t have the weaknesses of existing technology. According to Swan, Optane represents an evolution serious enough to keep pace with leaps that Intel has made in the data-center gear its biggest customers buy. “We think we have something special,” he says.