Intel is reportedly moving away from its stewardship of open source projects, with future efforts likely to echo its operator-focused work with FlexRAN.

According to The Register, Kevork Kechichian, executive VP and general manager of Intel's Data Center Group (DCG), said the company is rethinking its strategy regarding open source software.

"We have probably the largest footprint on open source out there from an infrastructure standpoint. We need to find a balance where we use that as an advantage to Intel and not let everyone else take it and run with it."

The exec’s remarks were made at the Arizona stop of the Intel Tech Tour, with Kechichian later telling The Register the new strategy doesn’t necessarily mean Intel is closing the door completely on open source.

"Our intention is never to leave open source. There are lots of people benefiting from the huge investment that Intel put in there. We're just going to figure out how we can get more out of that [Intel's open source contributions] versus everyone else using our investments," he told the title.

This sentiment was echoed by an Intel spokesperson, who reaffirmed the company was “deeply committed to open source” while honing its “focus on where and how we contribute – ensuring our efforts not only reinforce the communities we’ve supported for decades but also highlight the unique strengths of Intel."

Intel’s contributions over the years to open source have included HPC-heavy areas such as AI, quantum, silicon, and sustainability. The company has also openly discussed its use of open source projects it didn’t have a hand in, such as the Nautobot tool it has been using in recent years to establish a network source of truth for its data center operations

Prior to its recent pivot to reaffirming its foundry credentials under new CEO Lip-Bu Tan, Intel was pushing more into software as it primed its Tiber portfolio of software and hardware tools for AI and edge workloads.

A FlexRAN future footing?

The company also has an established footprint in open radio access network (RAN) technology, with its FlexRAN software used by the likes of Dish Network, Rakuten Symphony, and Telefónica.

Introduced in 2014, FlexRAN is Intel’s reference software platform for virtualized radio networks (vRAN), designed to help operators build and run 4G or 5G base stations on standard Intel servers instead of relying on proprietary hardware.

While it implements open interfaces so it can interoperate with other Open RAN components from different vendors, the platform is not fully open source as core components, such as lower-level signal-processing elements, are provided as prebuilt and proprietary Intel software, similar to elements in its OneMKL math kernel libraries.

With Intel selling processors to help run FlexRAN and only allowing licensed users access to its full reference stack, and OneMKL being free-to-use, it’s likely the former may be a template for Intel’s open source strategy going forward.