Future of Optane?
Notable is that Intel is still keeping their 3D XPoint technology and assets. Supposedly Intel is close to releasing a new generation of Optane drives and (presumably) caching tech. Maybe they're banking on the proceeds from that, along with the sale of their NAND division, to keep their flagging CPU side going until they can fix the issues at the Intel semiconductor fabs.
That said, this feels somewhat like Samsung selling their LCD factories and refocusing on QLED. While there was a lot of shock and fuss about that, the truth of the matter is that regular LCD tech is highly competitive and on its way out (cue OLED, QLED & MicroLED), making for razor-thin profit margins. With how competitive the NAND Flash market is, and how it's painting itself into a corner by having each generation (SLC, MLC, TLC, QLC, etc.) significantly reduce durability, speed and so on, I can imagine that shedding this division makes a lot of sense for Intel.