With the hiring of Alex Katouzian, who was responsible for mounting a new challenge against Intel’s PC dominance with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Series chips, the company is turning to another outsider yet again for a key position and signaling new channel opportunities.
Intel said Monday that it has hired a top Qualcomm executive for a new position that will have him oversee the alignment of its long-running and critical PC business with the emerging field of physical AI, which its CEO has made a priority.
With the hiring of Alex Katouzian, who was responsible for mounting a new challenge against Intel’s PC dominance with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Series chips, as executive vice president and general manager of the Client Computing Group, Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan is turning to another outsider yet again for a key leadership position.
[Related: Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan: ‘This Is A Fundamentally Different Company Today’]
The company also named Pushkar Ranade, Tan’s chief of staff, as Intel’s CTO after he served in the role on an interim basis for the past few months.
Katouzian, who will join the chipmaker this month and report directly to Tan, will “align Intel’s client computing business with emerging physical AI systems that span robotics, autonomous machines and other AI devices,” according to Intel.
“As discussed during our [first-quarter] earnings, we are now firmly in the AI conversation, and there are many new opportunities for us at the edge and across physical AI systems, including robotics, autonomous machines and other AI devices,” wrote Tan in a Monday memo about Katouzian that was seen by CRN.
Intel Partner Sees ‘A Lot Of Opportunity’ For Channel With Physical AI
Christopher Cyr, CTO of North Sioux City, S.D.-based Intel systems integration partner Sterling Computers, told CRN that the hire makes sense given the chipmaker’s increasing focus on reducing the power consumption of its chips, an area where Qualcomm has long been competitive. This is especially important considering Intel’s belief that inference represents the bulk of AI opportunities in the future—which include PCs and robots, not just servers.
This all adds up to new channel opportunities, particularly with respect to physical AI, according to Cyr, who noted that Intel already has a footprint in the robotics space.
“I think there’s a lot of opportunity for channel partners just dealing with physical AI because it is a solution of solutions,” said Cyr, whose company won a North America partner award from Intel and was No. 54 on CRN’s 2025 Solution Provider 500.
“You’ve got software, you’ve got chipsets, then you have the industry, whether it’s manufacturing, whether it’s logistics, so I think there’s a lot of opportunity for partners,” the solution provider executive added.
“Physical AI” is a term popularized by Nvidia to describe the use of autonomous systems, including cameras, robots and self-driving cars, to “perceive, understand, reason and perform or orchestrate complex actions in the physical world,” according to Nvidia.
Tan has called physical AI a strategic focus, and the company has already unveiled offerings in this area, including the Intel Robotics AI Suite, which is meant to add new capabilities to “existing x86 robotics deployments without expensive overhauls.”
Katouzian Is The New Boss Of Intel’s PC Business Leader
While an Intel spokesperson declined to provide more details about Katouzian’s new organization, Tan’s memo to staff said that Jim Johnson, the head of the company’s long-running Client Computing Group business unit, and Mike Hurley, the head of the silicon and platform engineering group, will report to Katouzian.
Johnson and Hurley were previously Tan’s direct reports. Tan appointed Johnson, a 40-year Intel veteran, to lead the Client Computing Group last September. Meanwhile, the CEO had made Hurley, a longtime engineering leader, a direct report earlier last year.
“One of Alex’s top priorities will be to partner with these leaders and their business unit and platform and engineering teams to ensure we operate as a unified team—leveraging our strengths to deliver for our customers and partners with greater speed and building on what we have today to grow the business for the next wave of AI growth,” Tan wrote.
“I want to thank Jim and Mike for their continued leadership, and I have full confidence in them and their teams as we sharpen our focus on execution and position Intel for long-term growth,” the CEO added in the memo.
Katouzian Leaves Qualcomm As It Makes Another PC Channel Push
A 24-year Qualcomm veteran, Katouzian was most recently executive vice president and group general manager of the mobile, compute and mixed reality business unit, which put him in charge of expanding the company’s Snapdragon chips in several segments.
This included the PC market, where Qualcomm has made a revitalized push with its Snapdragon X Series processors that debuted in 2024 as the exclusive launch chips for computers carrying Microsoft’s Copilot PC+ brand.
While Qualcomm made early investments in a global partner program to grow its Snapdragon PC business in the channel, those efforts faced a setback late last year when it lost two top channel leaders who were hired from Apple to build the program.
The company has maintained that it remains committed to the channel and hired Jason Banta, the former head of AMD’s CPU business with PC vendors, in February to lead global compute sales, including commercial channel efforts.
Katouzian is joining Intel at a time when the chipmaker has been ramping up investments in the channel while simplifying its partner program amid other changes.
“At a time when Intel is making significant reductions in operating expenses so that we can deliver an even greater return to our shareholders, we’ve continued to invest in the channel, and I think that will continue to be the case going forward as well,” Intel Global Channel Chief Dave Guzzi told CRN an in February interview.
New CTO Will Focus On Emerging Areas Like Quantum Computing
With Ranade becoming Intel’s permanent CTO after first taking on the role in December, his responsibilities will include the advancement of its technology strategy, the oversight of special technology projects like the Terafab initiative with Elon Musk, and the development of “critical emerging areas” such as quantum computing, neuromorphic computing, photonics and novel materials, according to Tan’s memo.
“He will also continue to serve as my chief of staff to accelerate the strong alignment between our technology strategy and business priorities,” the CEO wrote to employees. “I want to thank Pushkar for the strategic vision he has brought to Intel and his partnership with me and the entire leadership team.”
