New Intel chief executive Lip-Bu Tan is carrying out a major restructure of the company’s leadership team, with major chip groups and technical executives reporting directly to him, Reuters reported, citing a memo from Tan.

Intel’s data centre and AI chip group, as well as its personal-computer chip group, will now report directly to Tan, he reportedly said in the memo.

Michelle Johnston Holthaus, Intel’s chief executive of products, who previously oversaw the groups, is to remain in the role and expand her work into new areas.

‘Roll up my sleeves’

Tan wrote that he wanted to “roll up my sleeves” with the two groups and learn how to strengthen them.

“As Michelle and I drive this work, we plan to evolve and expand her role with more details to come in the future,” he wrote.

Intel has promoted networking chip head Sachin Katti to chief technology officer and AI chief, a role in which he is to oversee the development of a new strategy to combat Nvidia, which dominates the market for AI accelerator chips.

Katti is also to lead Intel Labs and “our relationships with the start-up and developer ecosystems”, Tan wrote.

Former chief technology officer Greg Lavender is to retire from the company.

Intel continues to look for a new head of government affairs to replace Bruce Andrews, a former Commerce Department official under Barack Obama who left after November’s US elections.

The new person in that role will also report directly to Tan, “given the critical importance of Government Affairs in a complex global environment”, Tan wrote.

He said three technical executives, Rob Bruckner, Mike Hurley and Lisa Pearce, will now report directly to him as he seeks to make Intel an “engineering-focused company” and giving Tan “visibility into what’s needed to compete and win”.

‘Suffocating’ culture

He said in the memo that organisational complexity had been “slowly suffocating the culture of innovation” at the company.

“It takes too long to make decisions. New ideas are not given room or resources to incubate. And unnecessary silos lead to inefficient execution,” Tan wrote.

Reuters reported last month that Tan was considering sharp cuts to the company’s middle-management and changes to its manufacturing processes to improve usability and performance.

Tan took over the chief executive role at Intel last month and is seeking to turn the company around after years of turmoil.

Last year Intel announced massive job cuts and a $18.8 billion (£14.2bn) full-year loss, its first since 1986, while the company’s shares lost about 60 percent of their value.