What is the company's operating income for the 2020-Q4 period
 in our mind, a multitude of architectures, CPU to XPU, or including graphics and AI capabilities, memory, security, and last but not least software. And you'll remember that we talked about those as the six pillars of technology required to deliver product leadership where the process is very important, but it's not the only thing.
So that's kind of the strategy we've been on for the last couple of years. But secondly, we're going to continue to invest in process technology. So, yes, some of the progress we made on 7-nanometers over the last couple of quarters is important for the next generation of process technology. So as we leverage our six pillars of technology to deliver leadership products, we will also continue to invest in next-generation process technology beyond 7-nanometer.
Pat Gelsinger -- Incoming Chief Executive Officer
Let me just add a couple of points to that. This is Pat again. As we said, here we believe the majority will be on our 7-nanometers, but we will be increasing the use of foundry capabilities in that time frame as well. Overall, it is about building as Bob said, a competitive product that is leadership in the marketplace and that's what our intent is do and as we broaden the use of our technologies across packaging, software, internal and external, we are confident that we can deliver a leadership product family in the marketplace across all of our major product categories.
Additionally, I was also very pleased to see some of the long-term innovations coming out of TD right, as we work to close any gaps with external foundries as well as leap ahead. And clearly, we're not interested in just closing gaps, we're interested in resuming that position of the unquestioned leader in process technology and that's our commitment. Also with the IDM model, we believe we have the right combination of being able to deliver supply to meet our customers' requirements by leveraging internal and external capabilities, which our competition doesn't have. And between all of these capabilities, we believe, we are striking the right balance of internal and external to deliver an unquestioned leadership product in the marketplace that meets our customers' requirements for the long-term.
Vivek Arya -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst
Thank you, Bob and Pat.
Operator
Our next question comes from Ambrish Srivastava, BMO
Ambrish Srivastava -- BMO Capital Markets -- Analyst
THi, thank you very much, Bob. Thanks, I really enjoyed my interactions with you. I had a question for you, Pat and I don't believe everything I read in the press, but, and even if you did look at the opportunity earlier, I just wanted to get a feel from you. What really appealed to you when you looked at this opportunity versus your very successful stint at VMware, and especially in light of the challenges Intel has had, which we could argue where Bob inherited from before.
So can you just help us understand kind of what are the challenges and the opportunities that you saw, which got you to this role again. And welcome back by the way.
Pat Gelsinger -- Incoming Chief Executive Officer
Well, thank you very much and a few general comments would be, one is, this is a great company and one that I have just great history with as I said 30 years as part of this company, Grove, Moore, Noyce, these are the people that I grew up right at their feet of learning and to me, it really is a privilege and an honor to come back to this company, as I said, my dream job. Second, this is a national asset. This company needs to be healthy for the technology industry for technology in America, and to me, it's an opportunity to help and to unquestionably put Intel and the United States in a technology leadership position. So I'm excited by that opportunity to do that.
It was also very exciting to see the unity of the board in calling me to the role and with that working closely with the board and their enthusiasm to bring me into the company as well as the alignment on the look-forward strategy that we're laying out and those together and I say the timing was
 in our mind, a multitude of architectures, CPU to XPU, or including graphics and AI capabilities, memory, security, and last but not least software. And you'll remember that we talked about those as the six pillars of technology required to deliver product leadership where the process is very important, but it's not the only thing.
So that's kind of the strategy we've been on for the last couple of years. But secondly, we're going to continue to invest in process technology. So, yes, some of the progress we made on 7-nanometers over the last couple of quarters is important for the next generation of process technology. So as we leverage our six pillars of technology to deliver leadership products, we will also continue to invest in next-generation process technology beyond 7-nanometer.
Pat Gelsinger -- Incoming Chief Executive Officer
Let me just add a couple of points to that. This is Pat again. As we said, here we believe the majority will be on our 7-nanometers, but we will be increasing the use of foundry capabilities in that time frame as well. Overall, it is about building as Bob said, a competitive product that is leadership in the marketplace and that's what our intent is do and as we broaden the use of our technologies across packaging, software, internal and external, we are confident that we can deliver a leadership product family in the marketplace across all of our major product categories.
Additionally, I was also very pleased to see some of the long-term innovations coming out of TD right, as we work to close any gaps with external foundries as well as leap ahead. And clearly, we're not interested in just closing gaps, we're interested in resuming that position of the unquestioned leader in process technology and that's our commitment. Also with the IDM model, we believe we have the right combination of being able to deliver supply to meet our customers' requirements by leveraging internal and external capabilities, which our competition doesn't have. And between all of these capabilities, we believe, we are striking the right balance of internal and external to deliver an unquestioned leadership product in the marketplace that meets our customers' requirements for the long-term.
Vivek Arya -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst
Thank you, Bob and Pat.
Operator
Our next question comes from Ambrish Srivastava, BMO
Ambrish Srivastava -- BMO Capital Markets -- Analyst
 THi, thank you very much, Bob. Thanks, I really enjoyed my interactions with you. I had a question for you, Pat and I don't believe everything I read in the press, but, and even if you did look at the opportunity earlier, I just wanted to get a feel from you. What really appealed to you when you looked at this opportunity versus your very successful stint at VMware, and especially in light of the challenges Intel has had, which we could argue where Bob inherited from before.
So can you just help us understand kind of what are the challenges and the opportunities that you saw, which got you to this role again. And welcome back by the way.
Pat Gelsinger -- Incoming Chief Executive Officer
Well, thank you very much and a few general comments would be, one is, this is a great company and one that I have just great history with as I said 30 years as part of this company, Grove, Moore, Noyce, these are the people that I grew up right at their feet of learning and to me, it really is a privilege and an honor to come back to this company, as I said, my dream job. Second, this is a national asset. This company needs to be healthy for the technology industry for technology in America, and to me, it's an opportunity to help and to unquestionably put Intel and the United States in a technology leadership position. So I'm excited by that opportunity to do that.
It was also very exciting to see the unity of the board in calling me to the role and with that working closely with the board and their enthusiasm to bring me into the company as well as the alignment on the look-forward strategy that we're laying out and those together and I say the timing was