Intel has revealed that it will no longer be investing in its NUC product line mostly known for its Mini-PCs and compact workstations.
Intel Cancels NUC
Intel’s NUC or Next Unit of Compute line has confirmed its plans to stop investment into the NUC platform often found in Mini-PCs and laptop reference systems though most people recognise the name from the former. Intel offered NUC kits which usually just came with the basics of a CPU, motherboard and iGPU with the user having to acquire the memory, storage and operating system giving them an acceptable amount of customizability in a small system. The information surrounding this was shared by servethehome.com who received an email from Intel with confirmation of this news 70 minutes after their initial article went live.
Intel’s Official Statement said the following:
We have decided to stop direct investment in the Next Unit of Compute (NUC) Business and pivot our strategy to enable our ecosystem partners to continue NUC innovation and growth. This decision will not impact the remainder of Intel’s Client Computing Group (CCG) or Network and Edge Computing (NEX) businesses. Furthermore, we are working with our partners and customers to ensure a smooth transition and fulfillment of all our current commitments – including ongoing support for NUC products currently in market.
Unfortunate News
With Intel no longer directly funding NUC they must not be seeing enough demand for small PCs to make it worth their investments. On the other hand, this isn’t the end of Mini-PCs or NUC as a whole since Intel will still be working with its partners to maintain current products and for them to continue to innovate the NUC space with their own mainboard designs. I do quite like the idea of mini-PCs as the average user can appreciate not having their desk space taken up by big cases. Even gamers can enjoy mini-PCs when you consider how powerful iGPUs have become in the last few years, especially in the case of handhelds such as the ROG Ally and Steam Deck.
Intel may no longer be interested in NUC but the Mini-PC market will still be strong for the future.
