Rumor has it that Optane was barely producible at all, much less profitably. They bet on a shrink that never came. That could be because R&D screwed up (Intel's

Rumor has it that Optane was barely producible at all, much less profitably. They bet on a shrink that never came. That could be because R&D screwed up (Intel's process teams have not exactly impressed in recent years), because management wouldn't bear the necessary costs, or because it was just too difficult to scale (rumors also say there's an element of truth to that, the Optane fab process was weird).