Since Intel launched Optane in 2015, we have seen news of Optane being used in various industries almost every year. However, recent media reports said that Intel seems to have lost confidence in Optane. Judging from the just-announced 2020 Optane business financial report, the annual loss exceeded 576 million US dollars.
Although the 2021 financial report has not been announced, some media speculate that the loss of the Optane business will still be around $500 million.
To be fair, we may not have seen the peak of Optane. The conversion technology integrating DRAM and NAND disappeared almost a year ago in the market, which is undoubtedly a loss to users.
As a rare manufacturer of shared 3D XPoint technology in the market, Micron sold the 3D XPoint Fab to Texas Instruments for $900 million last year, and now only Optane is left to support.
The failure to pose a threat to traditional SSD manufacturers may be an important reason for the poor performance of Optane’s business. The first batch of Optane products are low-capacity, expensive, and the market response is so-so, so it is not surprising that there is no big sale.