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What just happened? Former Intel CEO Brian Krzanich has landed a new high-profile gig as the head of automotive AI technology firm Cerence. However, Cerence's announcements celebrating its new hire stirred up intense criticism and backlash from many.
It all started with an official Cerence statement last week, proudly touting Krzanich's appointment as CEO and board member, highlighting his success and 36-year tenure at Intel. The company noted that Intel's annual revenue saw notable improvement under Krzanich's leadership from 2013-2018.
"During his tenure, he led Intel into emerging areas ranging from cloud computing and artificial intelligence to autonomous driving as the business scaled from $52 billion to more than $70 billion in revenue," Cerence boasted.
Arun Sarin, Cerence's board chairman, also proclaimed Krzanich an excellent choice to lead the company's transition, stating, "His leadership skills and expertise in AI and cloud computing make Brian the right leader to guide Cerence through this transition, capitalize on Cerence's growth opportunities and drive shareholder value."
However, the celebratory tone quickly soured as tech insiders voiced outrage over the hiring decision on social media. Tom's Hardware noted that the backlash grew so heated that Cerence had to shut down comments on their LinkedIn announcement.
One of the most scathing critiques came from Jonathan Huang, a former Intel veteran now at Apple. Huang first blasted Cerence, saying that the board of directors might have "lost their marbles." He snarkily criticized Krzanich for "perfecting the art of making a mess" and lacking vision while leading Intel.
Huang accused the ex-CEO of mismanaging the chip giant with "questionable acquisitions and share buybacks" funded by laying off talented employees. All of this is at the cost of Intel continuing to get pounded by its rivals like Nvidia. The layoffs bothered him the most. He stated that those employees lost their jobs for no good reason other than Krzanich's poor strategies. The post sparked a heated discussion on X/Twitter, too.
Ironically, Intel did not fire Krzanich over performance issues. It offered him the chance to resign in 2018 after violating company policy by having a consensual workplace relationship. While Cerence hoped adding an experienced tech titan would bolster its AI ambitions, the intense backlash suggests many are unwilling to forgive Krzanich's mixed legacy at Intel.
Krzanich gets credit for pivoting the company toward IoT and cloud during the general decline in the PC market. He's also known for boosting Intel's stock by a massive 120 percent as CEO.
However, his decision to skip scaling EUV manufacturing tools contributed to delays in getting 10nm chips out the door. This misstep allowed rivals like TSMC and Samsung to seize process leadership and gave AMD an edge that eroded Intel's market dominance. Intel's fortunes never fully rebounded after that.
Although Pat Gelsinger took the helm in 2021, aiming to right the ship, the company continues to struggle. The situation arguably added an exclamation point when Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's net worth recently eclipsed Intel's entire market valuation.