Intel Hires Ex-SK hynix Chief to Lead Foundry's Advanced Packaging Push

Intel just hired the man who ran one of its biggest memory rivals, and it tells you exactly where Intel thinks the chip race is now being won: not on the transistor, but on how you stitch chips together. On June 18, 2026, the company named Seok-Hee Lee, former CEO of SK hynix, to lead advanced packaging at Intel Foundry.

Lee will report directly to CEO Lip-Bu Tan and own a domain that has quietly become one of the most strategic in the industry.

Key takeaways

• Intel named Seok-Hee Lee executive vice president of Intel Foundry on June 18, 2026.
• Lee will lead advanced packaging, system integration and back-end technology development and manufacturing.
• He joins from SK On and previously served as president and CEO of SK hynix, a top memory maker.
• Intel is effectively splitting Foundry leadership: Naga Chandrasekaran continues to lead front-end development and manufacturing.
• Longtime executive Navid Shahriari is retiring after a 37-year career at Intel.

What happened

Intel framed the move as a way to accelerate development and manufacturing inside Intel Foundry, the part of the company that aims to build chips both for Intel and for outside customers. Lee will oversee what the industry calls the back end: advanced packaging, system integration and back-end technology development and manufacturing. His mandate is to strengthen Intel's ability to deliver system-level innovation, not just individual chips.

Lee brings unusually relevant experience. He led SK hynix, one of the world's largest memory chipmakers, served as president and CEO of SK On, and earlier held engineering leadership roles at Intel itself. That blend of memory, manufacturing and Intel history is precisely the profile Intel needs as packaging becomes a competitive battleground.

To understand why this hire is pointed rather than generic, it helps to see where the industry's leverage has shifted. For decades, the way to make chips faster was to shrink the transistors, doubling density on a roughly two-year cadence. That scaling has slowed and grown enormously expensive, so chipmakers increasingly chase performance by combining several specialized chiplets into one package and connecting them with very high-bandwidth links. The most demanding example is an AI accelerator that stacks high-bandwidth memory directly alongside the processor; how well those pieces are packaged together often determines real-world performance more than the transistor node does. That is the battleground Intel just put a memory veteran in charge of.

The appointment also reorganizes Foundry's top ranks. Naga Chandrasekaran, also an executive vice president, continues to report to Tan and will focus on front-end technology, the actual fabrication of transistors, as Intel races to ramp its Intel 18A and 14A process nodes. In short, Intel is dividing the work: one leader for the front end, one for the back end.

Here is how the reshuffled Foundry leadership now breaks down:

Leader	Owns	Focus area	Reports to
Seok-Hee Lee (new)	Back end	Advanced packaging, system integration	Lip-Bu Tan
Naga Chandrasekaran	Front end	Transistor fabrication, Intel 18A and 14A	Lip-Bu Tan
Navid Shahriari	Retiring	37-year Intel career	n/a

Why it matters

Intel has spent years trying to claw back manufacturing leadership it lost to rivals in Taiwan and South Korea. Advanced packaging is central to that effort. As traditional transistor scaling slows, the ability to combine multiple chiplets efficiently has become one of the most important levers for performance, and it is exactly where demand from AI accelerators is most intense.

Hiring a leader who ran a major memory company signals that Intel takes the packaging fight seriously. Memory and packaging are increasingly intertwined, because modern AI chips depend on high-bandwidth memory stacked and integrated alongside the processor, a dynamic we explored in our coverage of Micron's record AI memory quarter. Splitting Foundry leadership into focused front-end and back-end roles suggests Intel wants dedicated, expert attention on each. It also comes as Intel pushes its 18A node toward production, which we cover in Intel 18A-P risk production, and lands fresh external interest like the Apple chip manufacturing deal.

What is next

Execution is everything for Intel right now. The company's turnaround depends on hitting aggressive manufacturing milestones, and the new structure is meant to support that. Watch for:

1. Packaging roadmap. How quickly Lee's organization advances Intel's advanced packaging capabilities.
2. Process ramps. Progress on Intel 18A and 14A under Chandrasekaran's front-end leadership.
3. Foundry customers. Whether the focus on system-level innovation helps win external chip customers.
4. Execution credibility. How investors and partners read Intel's ability to deliver on its commitments.

What to watch right now

If you track Intel as an investor, customer, or industry observer, these are the signals that matter:

Signal	Why it matters	What good looks like
18A and 14A yield ramps	Front-end credibility under Chandrasekaran	On-schedule volume production
Packaging customer wins	Validates Lee's mandate	Named external clients for advanced packaging
AI accelerator deals	Where packaging demand is hottest	HBM-integrated wins
Execution vs promises	Intel's credibility gap	Milestones hit without slips

Frequently asked questions

Who is Seok-Hee Lee?

He is a semiconductor veteran who has led SK On and previously served as president and CEO of SK hynix, with earlier engineering leadership roles at Intel. In June 2026 he became executive vice president of Intel Foundry.

What will Lee be responsible for?

He leads advanced packaging, system integration, and back-end technology development and manufacturing at Intel Foundry, reporting directly to CEO Lip-Bu Tan.

Why is advanced packaging so important?

As shrinking transistors gets harder, combining multiple chiplets into one efficient package has become a key source of performance gains, especially for AI chips that rely on integrated high-bandwidth memory.

Does this mean Intel changed its Foundry leadership structure?

Yes. Intel split the focus: Lee leads back-end work, while Naga Chandrasekaran continues to lead front-end technology and manufacturing. Longtime executive Navid Shahriari is retiring after 37 years.

The hire alone will not fix Intel's manufacturing challenges. But bringing in a leader with deep memory and packaging credentials shows where the company believes the next round of the chip race will be won.