Intel Safroadu Yeboah-Amankwah Departure: What Really Happened Behind the Scenes

Honestly, the tech world moves so fast that a high-profile exit can feel like yesterday's news before the ink is even dry on the press release. But when Safroadu "Saf" Yeboah-Amankwah officially stepped down as Intel’s Chief Strategy Officer on June 30, 2025, it wasn't just another executive playing musical chairs. It was a loud signal that the old ways of doing things at Team Blue were being scrapped.

Intel is in the middle of a massive identity crisis. You've probably seen the headlines about their $18.8 billion net loss in 2024—the worst since the 80s. When things get that bad, the "strategy" guy is usually the first person the new boss looks at.

Why the Intel Safroadu Yeboah-Amankwah Departure Was Inevitable

Lip-Bu Tan, who took the CEO reins in March 2025, isn't known for being patient. He’s a guy who likes things lean. Almost immediately after moving into the corner office, Tan started hacking away at what he called a "bloated, slow-moving middle-management layer."

Saf Yeboah-Amankwah had been the CSO since 2020. He came over from McKinsey, where he spent 26 years advising the biggest names in telecom and tech. At Intel, he was the architect behind big moves like the IDM 2.0 strategy and the push into automotive chips. But here’s the thing: while Saf was busy planning the 10-year horizon, Intel was getting its lunch eaten by AMD in the server market and falling miles behind Nvidia in the AI race.

The Intel Safroadu Yeboah-Amankwah departure basically happened because the company shifted from "long-term planning" mode to "survival" mode. Tan didn't want a consultant's view of the world; he wanted engineers running the show.

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The Shift in Power

When Saf left, his office didn't just get a new nameplate. His responsibilities were chopped up and handed out to people closer to the actual silicon.

• Sachin Katti, the Chief Technology and AI Officer, took over the core strategy functions.
• Intel Capital, the massive venture arm Saf used to oversee, started reporting directly to CEO Lip-Bu Tan.
• The automotive unit Saf helped champion? Shuttered.

It’s a brutal way to run a company, but when you're losing billions, you don't have time for multi-year "transformation" roadmaps that don't result in faster chips.

Breaking Down the McKinsey Legacy at Intel

There’s been a lot of chatter in the industry about whether hiring a McKinsey lifer was the right move for Intel in the first place. You’ll hear some folks say that Saf brought much-needed discipline and a global perspective. He has an MIT background, so it’s not like he didn't understand the tech.

But critics—and there are plenty of them on boards like Reddit and SemiWiki—argue that Intel became too focused on "financial engineering" and "strategic pivots" instead of just building better transistors. The 2022 acquisition of Granulate for $650 million is a prime example. It was supposed to be a brilliant strategic play for cloud optimization. Fast forward a couple of years, and Intel had to write that investment down to basically zero.

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When you look at the Intel Safroadu Yeboah-Amankwah departure through that lens, it looks less like a voluntary retirement and more like a rejection of the "consultant-led" era of Intel.

A New Culture of Execution

Lip-Bu Tan has been very vocal about making Intel "lean, fast, and agile" again. To do that, he’s been flattening the org chart. He literally told employees that the best leaders get the most done with the fewest people. That’s a direct shot at the 2,000-person strategy and investment team Saf used to lead.

Intel is currently:

1. Cutting up to 20% of its total workforce.
2. Selling off non-core assets like the networking unit.
3. Focusing almost exclusively on being a foundry for other people's chips.

What This Means for Intel's Future

If you’re holding Intel stock or just watching the semiconductor space, this departure is a huge "tell." It tells us that Intel is done trying to be everything to everyone. The era of spending billions on "strategic partnerships" and "business incubation" is over.

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The strategy now? Survive.

Naga Chandrasekaran, who came over from Micron, is seeing his role expand to cover almost everything related to manufacturing and foundry services. This is a "heads-down" leadership team. They aren't looking at 2035; they’re looking at how to get the next generation of 18A chips out the door without another delay.

Saf Yeboah-Amankwah will likely end up back in the world of private equity or high-level consulting. His pedigree is still top-tier, and he’s still on the board of companies like Mobileye. But his exit marks the end of an era where Intel thought it could "strategize" its way out of a manufacturing hole.

Actionable Insights for Tech Leaders:

• Execution over Strategy: In a crisis, a "perfect" strategy is worth less than a mediocre strategy executed quickly. Intel waited too long to pivot to AI.
• Flatten the Org: If your strategy team is larger than your core engineering leadership, you might have a bottleneck problem.
• Watch the Foundry Space: With Saf out and the engineers in, watch for Intel to make more aggressive, tech-first plays to win back customers like Apple or Qualcomm for their foundry services.

The reality is that Intel is a different company today than it was six months ago. The departure of Saf Yeboah-Amankwah was the final curtain on a period of Intel’s history that they'd probably like to forget. Now, they have to prove they can actually build the future they’ve been talking about for years.