CFO George Davis told the assembled throngs at a Morgan Stanley Analyst Conference that while Chipzilla makes 3D NAND chips in Dalian, China but has been unable to sell enough SSDs, using those chips, to generate profit.

He said that Intel could stop operating its own NAND foundry and buying in chips, or even sourcing complete SSDs from a third party. Alternatively, it could sell chips to third parties.

Davis said that NAND flash is an Intel big bet, with NAND in the data centre becoming more and more important. But “we have to have profitability, long term profitability and attractive returns… we haven’t been able to generate the profits out of that to get the kind of returns that we would like to see”.

CEO Bob Swan, said last year, Intel was evaluating NAND manufacturing operations because the business was unprofitable.

“We [have] got to generate more attractive returns on the NAND side of the business… And to the extent there is a partnership out there that’s going to increase the likelihood and/or accelerate the pace, we’re going to evaluate those partnerships.”

Davis said a NAND glut and price cuts had made selling SSDs in 2019 more difficult. But things have now changed: “When we look at the demand picture, there’s still critical shortages on NAND. So I think, you know, that that’s got a good tail wind with it.”

He added: “We’re going to look at ways of improving profitability, not only in terms of how we manage the business every day, but also in looking at partnerships and other things where we can perhaps improve the overall economics of the investment.”