TrendForce News operates independently from our research team, curating key semiconductor and tech updates to support timely, informed decisions.
News
Recently, chip giants NVIDIA and Intel have both announced major leadership changes. While NVIDIA strengthens its dominance in AI computing by attracting top talent, Intel is accelerating its strategic transformation toward AI with executive reshuffles.
Two AI Experts Join NVIDIA
AI scientists Banghua Zhu and Jiantao Jiao, both undergraduate alumni of Tsinghua University, recently announced their joining of NVIDIA via social media posts, accompanied by photos with NVIDIA’s founder and CEO Jensen Huang.
“I’m very excited to share that I will be joining NVIDIA as a Principal Research Scientist!” Zhu wrote. Jiao also confirmed he had joined NVIDIA and expressed his intent to advance the frontiers of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and superintelligence, though he did not disclose his specific role.
Zhu is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Washington. He earned his B.S. in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Tsinghua University in 2018 and his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley in 2024. In his post’s comment section, Zhu noted he would be joining NVIDIA’s Star Nemotron team, focusing on applied research.
The Star Nemotron team develops enterprise AI agents powered by inference and multimodal foundation models. NVIDIA has been rapidly expanding its research team in recent years—by 2024, R&D employees made up more than 60% of its global workforce. The company’s key focus areas include generative AI infrastructure, autonomous systems, and robotics.
Jiao is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences and Statistics at UC Berkeley. In 2011, he received Tsinghua’s top undergraduate scholarship and later pursued a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. His research spans generative AI, foundation models, and AI safety.
Both Zhu and Jiao indicated they will focus on four major areas: post-training of models, performance evaluation, agent development, and AI infrastructure, with an emphasis on collaborative innovation with the developer community and academia.
In addition, they co-founded the generative AI startup Nexusflow in 2023. Nexusflow aims to help enterprises understand cybersecurity data through generative AI. In November last year, the company released the open-source model Athene-V2, with Athene-V2-Chat reportedly rivaling GPT-4o in benchmarks related to conversation, coding, and mathematics.
Intel’s Chief Strategy Officer to Step Down by End of June
Intel is also undergoing another executive shake-up. Safroadu Yeboah-Amankwah, Intel’s Chief Strategy Officer (CSO), will officially step down on June 30, with part of his responsibilities being assumed by Sachin Katti, the newly appointed Chief Technology and AI Officer.
Yeboah-Amankwah has served as CSO since 2020, overseeing Intel’s growth strategies, key partnerships, and equity investments. During his tenure, Intel underwent strategic shifts in areas such as AI and autonomous driving. In an official statement, Intel said: “We thank Saf for his contributions to Intel and wish him all the best in his future endeavors.”
This transition is part of a broader organizational restructuring led by new CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who took office in March 2025. Following Yeboah-Amankwah’s departure, Katti will take over portions of the strategic function. Appointed as CTO and AI Chief in April 2025, Katti previously served as General Manager of Intel’s Network and Edge Group and is also a professor at Stanford University. His responsibilities now include overseeing AI strategy, product roadmaps, Intel Labs operations, and external tech partnerships.
Meanwhile, Intel’s venture capital arm, Intel Capital, will report directly to Lip-Bu Tan. Since taking over, Tan has significantly streamlined Intel’s management structure, taking direct control of the data center & AI chip business and the PC chip business, and bringing in new senior engineering leaders.
It’s reported that Lip-Bu Tan is steering Intel toward a sharper focus on AI-specific chips and advanced process technologies, in a bid to counter increasing pressure from rivals like NVIDIA and AMD. Following the handover, Sachin Katti will lead Intel’s technology strategy and AI development—his background is seen as well aligned with Intel’s evolving, tech-first priorities.
(Photo credit: NVIDIA)
