Intel's Intriguing Future For Memory Chips

Last week I met with several executives of Intel (INTC) at the company’s headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif. Among them was Rob Crooke, who runs the memory-chip technology business for Intel, which includes NAND flash memory chips developed in partnership with Micron Technology (MU). The business also includes a newer, more novel type of device, “3-D Xpoint,” first introduced in July of 2015 via the Micron partnership, and now sold under the “Optane” brand by Intel.

“We’re in a fantastic market, I can’t complain!” said Crooke with a smile, as I observed that the latest results, in Intel’s Q1 report on April 26, showed the memory business was on fire — sales were up 20% at $1 billion.