When Intel introduced its Optane memory solution, it was deemed the future of computing. “For the first time ever, we’ll be able to equip computers with memory that’s faster than NAND and more dense than DRAM, and nonvolatile,” the company said. Unfortunately, the product’s consumer market innings lasted merely half a decade before Intel pulled the plug on the whole endeavor. But, Intel is no stranger to killing products, both symbolic and strategic.
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The cancellation of its highly ambitious AI chip project was also accompanied by the exit of company veteran and CEO, Pat Gelsinger, earlier this year. The same year, Intel put the NUC mini PC platform on cold ice. Intel even put an Atom chip inside an Android Wear smartwatch made by TAG Heuer, and then quietly abandoned those wearable ambitions. The list of dead and discontinued products at Intel is quite long, and nearly in the same league as the famed Google Graveyard.
With the Optane memory solution, the writing had been on the wall, at least from the market analysts’ perspective. To the last day, Intel was adamant that Optane was a tech stack ahead of its time, but it couldn’t evolve into a profitable business for the company. How much was the hit? Intel lost billions each year on the Optane business, and eventually had to write off assets worth over half a billion dollars when it announced its death.
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The why and how behind Intel Optane’s demise
Intel Optane was somewhat of a bridge between traditional RAM and storage modules, with the sole objective of speeding things up inside your computer. Intel officially referred to it as a system acceleration solution that would spped up data transfer between SSDs and the processing unit. The net result of those memory and storage innovations was faster boot time, quicker search and discovery of assets, quicker app launch, and overall enhanced responsiveness on Optane-powered machines.
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At the heart of it was the non-volatile, dense 3D XPoint memory, which was achieved using sliced submicroscopic layers connected by perpendicular wires and stacked to enhance the memory density into a single, small package. Now, this tech was jointly developed by Intel and memory giant Micron. In 2021, Macron announced that it was shutting down development of 3D XPoint memory. The same year, Intel revealed that it was killing the Optane SSD platform built atop the PCIe 4.0 bus standard. By the end of 2021, Intel had sold its SSD and NND memory business to Korean memory chip giant, SK Hynix.
A few weeks later, Intel chief Gelsinger explained in an interview why he wanted the company to dump its memory business. “I never want to be in memory,” he told Stratechery. Months later, Intel announced in its Q2 2022 earnings that it was winding down its Optane business, which resulted in an inventory write-off worth $559 million. Intel didn’t outright reveal why, but in a statement shared with the press, the company hinted that it was not a “sufficiently profitable” venture.
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Can you still use Optane?
If you are still rocking a computing machine, such as a laptop powered by 11th Gen Intel processors and the Intel Optane SSD solution, you are “temporarily” fine. On the operating system side of things, Intel says the Optane memory is compatible with the 64-bit version of Windows 11 and 10. However, if you haven’t made the jump to Windows 11 yet, prepare for the shift. On October 14, 2025, Microsoft will end official support for Windows 10.
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If you invested in an Intel Optane-powered computing machine, the company will honor the standard 5-year warranty, calculated from the date of purchase. But do keep in mind that Intel is no longer offering services related to Optane products. For example, if you purchased a product with one of Intel’s Optane 8 and 9 series SSDs, they have already reached the End of Servicing (ESU), End of Life (EOL), and End of Interactive Support (EOIS) deadlines, as of 2024.
Similar is the status of Intel Optane H and M-series memory solutions. The sole exception is the Intel Optane Persistent Memory 100 Series, which is going to reach the EOIS status on June 30, 2025. Notably, Intel had already ceased to provide firmware updates and the necessary software tools for storage and memory tools in March this year. In a nutshell, your Optane machine will continue to work, but don’t expect a fix if something is broken, and of course, don’t buy any fresh Optane hardware.
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