Intel will spin off its FPGA division as an independent company

Intel’s FPGA division will become an independent company again. The chipmaker acquired the FPGA manufacturer Altera for $ 16.7 billion in 2015 and then transferred it to its programmable solutions group. That industry is now becoming independent again, although Intel remains the owner.

Intel’s programmable solutions group, also known as PSG, will function as an independent company again from January 1. Intel reported this on Wednesday in a press release. The chipmaker will report PSG’s finances as a separate business unit in its figures for the first quarter of 2024. The chipmaker also wants to take the former Altera to the stock exchange in two to three years and also explore opportunities for private investments. Intel will then retain a majority share.

The separation should give the PSG division “the autonomy and flexibility it needs to accelerate its growth and compete more effectively in the FPGA market,” Intel said. At the same time, this should help Intel itself focus on its own ‘core strategy’. Intel continues to produce chips for the FPGA division through its Intel Foundry Services. Sandra Rivera, currently the general manager of Intel’s data center division, will head the new company.

Intel has sold or spun off several business units since Pat Gelsinger took over as new CEO in early 2021. For example, the chipmaker used a similar strategy with Mobileye, which designs chips for self-driving cars. Mobileye spun off from Intel last year and went public, although Intel still has a majority stake in the Israeli chipmaker. The company also previously stopped Optane and last year also spun off its SSD division as a new company, which is now owned by SK Hynix under the name Solidigm. The company also discontinued its NUC mini PCs this year, although those businesses were acquired by ASUS.

Intel entered the FPGA market in 2015 with its acquisition of the former Altera. That company was eventually renamed to Intel’s programmable solutions group. At the time, Intel paid $16.7 billion for the company, which was responsible for, among other things, Intel’s Agilex and Stratix FPGAs. Such field programmable gate arrays can be programmed by users for specific computing tasks and can therefore be used relatively flexibly.