As Intel looks to streamline its business operations and get back to profitability in the face of weak revenues and other business struggles, nothing is off the table as the company looks to cut costs into 2025 – not even Intel’s trade shows. In an unexpected announcement this afternoon, Intel has begun informing attendees of its fall Innovation 2024 trade show that the event has been postponed. Previously scheduled for September of this year, Innovation is now slated to take place at some point in 2025.
Innovation is Intel’s regular technical showcase for developers, customers, and the public, and is the successor to the company’s legendary IDF show. In recent years the show has been used to deliver status updates on Intel’s fabs, introduce new client platforms like Panther Lake, launch new products, and more.
But after 3 years of shows, the future of Innovation is up in the air, as Intel has officially postponed the show – and with a less-than-assuring commitment to when it may return.
In a message posted on the Innovation 2024 website (registration required), and separately sent out via email, Intel announced the postponement of the show. In lieu of the show, Intel still plans on holding smaller developer events.
After careful consideration, we have made the decision to postpone our Intel-hosted event, Intel Innovation in September, until 2025. For the remainder of 2024, we will continue to host smaller, more targeted events, webinars, hackathons and meetups worldwide through Intel Connection and Intel AI Summit events, as well as have a presence at other industry moments.
Depending on your development needs, please leverage the following developer resources to learn more: developer.intel.com, developer.intel.com/ai, open.intel.com and intel.com/support. Click here for a full list of Developer events.
–Intel Innovation Website
Separately, in a statement sent to PCMag, the company cited its current financial situation, and that they “are having to make some tough decisions as we continue to align our cost structure and look to assess how we rebuild a sustainable engine of process technology leadership.”
While Intel had not yet published a full agenda for the now-delayed show, Innovation 2024 was expected to be a major showcase for Intel’s Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake client processors, both of which are due this fall. Arrow Lake in particular is Intel’s lead product for their 20A process node – their first node implementing RibbonFETs and PowerVia backside power delivery – so its launch will be an important moment for the company. And while the postponement of Innovation won’t impact those launches, it means that Intel won’t have access to the same stage or built-in audience that comes with hosting your own trade show. Never mind the lost opportunities for software developers, who are the core audience for the show.
Officially, the show is just postponed. But given the lead time needed to reserve the San Jose Convention Center and similar venues, it’s unclear whether Intel will be able to host a show before the second half of 2025 – at which point we’d be closer to Innovation 2025, making Innovation 2024 de facto cancelled.
In the meantime, the company has already announced that they’ll be launching Lunar Lake at IFA in Germany in September. So that remains the next big trade show for Intel’s client chip group.
