I'm not sure I agree it was lagging behind. They were definitely not first to market with 3D-NAND but my gut feeling is that was because of the engineering foc

I'm not sure I agree it was lagging behind. They were definitely not first to market with 3D-NAND but my gut feeling is that was because of the engineering focus on Optane. AFAIK they and Kioxia (toshba) were leading the charge on PLC memory. All of that is ignoring the fact that there is absolutely a benefit for Intel to have vertical integration in this area. They make countless products that rely on flash storage - from NICs to switches. The second they have to rely on an outside party they have to pay markup for that company's margin and they're at that company's mercy from an R&D perspective. This whole thing feels penny wise, pound foolish to me.