Intel Nabs Former AMD Exec Matt Poirier To Lead M&A Quest

The important mergers and acquisitions lead role at the chip giant will be filled by a veteran corporate development executive with more than 20 years of experience.

Intel said Thursday that AMD’s Matt Poirier has been appointed senior vice president of corporate development to focus on mergers and acquisitions, effective May 30.

Poirier was senior vice president of strategy and corporate development at AMD, focusing on mergers, acquisitions, and integration. Intel and AMD, both based in Santa Clara, Calif., have traded blows as the two fight it out for semiconductor dominance. AMD’s February $49 billion acquisition of Xilinx was the largest in semiconductor history.

Intel had $38.7 billion in cash and short-term investments as of the end of its most recent quarter ended April 2, according to regulatory filings. The company is spending a good chunk of its cash stockpile buying up other companies. In February, Intel announced it would acquire Tower Semiconductor for $5.4 billion. Just this week, the tech giant said it bought graphics tech company Siru Innovations for an undisclosed sum. And earlier this year, Intel reportedly paid $650 million for Israeli cloud startup Granulate.

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Poirier will lead Intel’s corporate development team responsible for advancing and accelerating Intel’s business through mergers and acquisitions. He will join the company’s executive leadership team, reporting directly to Gelsinger.

Kent Tibbils, vice president of marketing for Intel distributor ASI Corp. in Fremont, Calif., said mergers and acquisitions are crucial to Intel and to the channel partners.

“The overall digital convergence of the technology market continues to advance and diversify… so M&A plays an important role in Intel’s overall strategy,” he said in an email to CRN. “The benefits to the channel are significant as it absolutely brings many emerging technologies to market through Intel’s vast ecosystem. We’ve seen Intel being highly active in the area of product development and foundry investment so the opportunity to enhance solutions in both areas are very exciting for Intel customers and the entire technology industry.”

Prior to joining AMD, Poirier was senior vice president of corporate development and investor relations and Xilinx. He also spent nearly a decade in technology investment banking covering the semiconductor industry. Prior to his graduate studies, Poirier served in leadership positions as an officer in the U.S. Navy for more than six years.

Poirier holds a Master of Business Administration from UCLA and a bachelor of science degree from U.S. Naval Academy.

Wendell Brooks, who left Intel in August 2020, was previously head of M&A. Anthony Lin, head of Intel Capital, has been interim head of M&A since then.