Intel's New CEO Lip-Bu Tan Outlines Ambitious Turnaround Strategy

Intel's latest CEO Lip Bu Tan: 'You deserve better'

Intel's newly appointed CEO Lip-Bu Tan has used his first major speech to admit the x86 goliath needs to shape up, and sketched out plans to turn things around. "It has been a tough period for quite a long time for Intel," Tan said in his keynote at the Intel Vision conference on Monday afternoon. "We fell behind on innovation. As a result, we have been too slow to adapt and to meet your needs. You deserve better, and we need to improve." Tan also addressed the poor state of Intel's AI accelerator lineup, competition for its Products business (which creates chip designs), and the mounting losses accrued at its fledgling Foundry wing. "My number one priority since my first day on the job, has been spending time with customers," he said. "It is very clear from the early conversation, we have a lot of hard work ahead." While Tan highlighted the opportunity for CPU-based AI inferencing at the edge - a concept we've explored previously. He expressed disappointment regarding Chipzilla's broader datacenter AI portfolio, which is seldom mentioned as a serious contender to products from Nvidia and even AMD. "I'm not happy with our current position. I know that you are not happy either. I have heard the feedback loud and clear. It's time to turn a new page," the new CEO said, promising to deliver a competitive AI platform, while emphasizing that it "won't happen overnight." If Tan has his way, Intel's future systems will outperform rival products, sell for less, and use less energy. If he delivers on the last point, it will be welcome news for datacenter operators still trying to wrap their mind around Nvidia's plan for 600kW rack systems due out at the end of 2027. Tan also addressed growing competition from rival chip designers which, combined with Intel failing to meet its own timelines for new products, threaten Intel's long dominant desktop and server processors. "We must deliver great quality, on time delivery without exception, and we have to have a culture of first-time pass and we're not there," he said. "My motto is very simple: Under-promise and over-deliver. That has been my trademark," Tan added. Intel's Product division has suffered a number of embarrassing delays and cancellations in recent years. The 4th-Gen Xeon Scalable processors, codenamed Sapphire Rapids, arrived nearly two years late. That delay meant AMD's Epyc processors were the first x86-based CPUs to support DDR5, PCIe 5.0, and CXL in late 2022 -- a full two months before Sapphire Rapids finally made its debut. In the client market, Apple's processors can outperform Intel's, while Qualcomm was Microsoft's sole partner at the launch of the Copilot+ PC. Tan talked up the forthcoming launch of Intel's Panther Lake client CPUs, which will see Intel build its own chips after using TSMC to manufacture its previous generation of PC processors. "As we strengthen our Intel products, we are equally committed to build a great foundry," he said. Tan didn't go into specifics about plans for Intel's chip-making operation, promising more detail at Intel's Foundry Direct Event next month. He did mention plans to scale the business, put the "right people in the right place," and improve efficiency. The new CEO also expressed his desire for Intel to return to its roots as an engineering-first company, a change he thinks can be achieved by fostering a "startup" culture obsessed with serving its customers. "Please be brutally honest with us," he said, arguing that Intel needs to do a better job of working with customers to design products that address their needs. Tan also said he thinks Intel should pursue growth opportunities in fields such as robotics, photonics, and quantum computing. The latter two are areas where Intel already has investments. Last year, the US super-corp detailed its progress on a silicon-based quantum processor based on spin qubits, a technology the company believes can be mass-produced. Despite the perception that quantum computing is forever ten years away, Tan believes the tech is much closer to reality. Interestingly, Tan is a director of photonics startup Celestial AI, an outfit that aims to replace electronic interconnects with optical networks to speed up large AI systems. Our friends at The Next Platform explored the biz last year. I won't be satisfied until we consistently deliver our promise, on time, on quality Intel has dabbled in silicon photonics tech for years and last year demonstrated an optical chiplet co-packaged alongside a CPU. Tan told his audience to "stay tuned" for news of Intel's robotics plans. The approach Tan outlined in his speech isn't far off the one he took as CEO of semiconductor and electronics design software giant Cadence Systems. "We are here to serve you and earn your trust. I won't be happy and satisfied until we consistently deliver our promise, on time, on quality, to exceed your expectation," he told Intel's event. ®

Intel's Top Execs Clueless on Tan's 'Chopping Block

Chipzilla chief asked customers to be 'brutally honest' ... which will lead to what changes, we wonder Vision Not even Intel's top brass know what's on newly minted CEO Lip-Bu Tan's chopping block. "We are refocusing on the core," Chief Commercial Officer Christoph Schell said on stage at the x86 giant's Vision event in Las Vegas on Tuesday. "Li-Bu, yesterday, even said that we might make decisions to spin off businesses that we consider as non-core. He hasn't really told us yet what this means." He hasn't really told us yet what this means The admission came toward the end of a roughly an hour-and-a-half-long product strategy update that was dominated more by customer testimonials than anything resembling a road-map. The general lack of visibility no doubt comes from the uncertainty over what will make Tan's list of core businesses worth saving and which will be forcibly ejected as non-essential distractions. "At Intel, we will redefine some of our strategy and then free up the bandwidth," the chief exec said during yesterday's Vision keynote. "Some of the non-core business, we will spin it off." Of course after just 14 days on the job, we'd wouldn't be surprised if Tan was still forming his opinions on what stays and what goes. Intel has already spun off several business units including its Mobileye Autonomous vehicle division, and its Altera FPGA business that is now led by former Intel datacenter chief Sandra Rivera. There was even talk leading up to Tan's appointment as CEO last month of spinning off Foundry as a standalone business. That, however, seems unlikely as Tan has committed to both restoring trust in Intel's Products division and seeing out former CEO Pat Gelsinger's foundry ambitions. "As we strengthen our Intel products, we are equally committed to build a great foundry," Tan said earlier this week. Speaking on Tuesday, SVP and GM of Intel Foundry Kevin O'Buckley offered a peek at Intel's progress commercializing its 18A process node, which is set to power the corporation's next-gen client processors, codenamed Panther Lake, and its first leading-edge node offered for contract manufacturing. "I'm very happy today to use this forum to announce that based on the hardware that we've delivered to our customers, we're now ready to announce that we've entered into what we call the risk production phase," he said. This phase, he explained, is where foundry operators freeze development of the node and begin scaling up to for mass production. Intel is set to provide additional updates on its Foundry progress as its Direct Connect event later this month. It's also clear Intel's x86 CPU business isn't going anywhere, either, in terms of being sold off, with execs continuing to beat the drum of AI PCs, and promising to extend those capabilities to the network edge. The neural-network processing units, aka NPUs, powering Intel's Lunar Lake processors already boast 48 TOPS worth of AI compute baked right into the chipset. Many of Intel's Xeons, meanwhile, come equipped with its Advanced Matrix Extensions (AMX) accelerators for machine-learning acceleration. It's less clear what's going to happen to Habana Labs, the division behind Intel's Gaudi3 accelerators. While Intel execs touted several customer tie-ups surrounding the platform, even by Intel's own admission, the parts are competing against Nvidia H100s and H200s at a time when customers are cross shopping B200s and AMD MI300-series chips, which offer vastly higher performance, memory capacity, and bandwidth. Worse, with the cancellation of Falcon Shores, Gaudi3 is officially a dead-end platform. With that said, in his keynote yesterday, Tan did make it clear that Intel wasn't out of the AI fight yet. But while x86 CPUs, AI PCs, and edge compute appear safe for now, that still leaves plenty of products in question. Tan, for his part, has made it clear that customer feedback will guide at least some of these decisions, which might explain the surplus of customer testimonials during Tuesday's presentation. "Please be brutally honest with us," he said during his keynote yesterday. However, once armed with this feedback it'll be up to Tan which products are worth saving and which will be put out to pasture. ®

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan To Partners: 'Please Be Brutally Honest With Us'

In his first public appearance as Intel's new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan urges partners and customers to 'be brutally honest with us' as he works to 'build a new Intel' that will be 'equally focused' on strengthening the chipmaker's products and building a 'great foundry.' Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan urged the beleaguered semiconductor giant's partners and customers to "be brutally honest with us" as he takes on the "very challenging task" of building a "new Intel" in his first public appearance as the company's new leader. Tan delivered the remarks, often candid and humble but also full of resolve in his vow to stage a full comeback for the Silicon Valley chipmaker, in his live-streamed keynote at the Intel Vision 2025 event on Monday, nearly two weeks after he started as the company's new CEO. [Related: New Intel CEO Sparks Partner Questions, Concerns And Hope About Its Channel, AI Strategy And Workforce] "It had been a tough period for quite a long time for Intel. We fell behind on innovation. As a result, we have been too slow to adapt and to meet your needs. You deserve better, and we need to improve, and we will," he said. "Please be brutally honest with us. This is what I expect [of] you this week, and I believe harsh feedback is most valuable." Intel's board named Tan, a longtime tech investor and former CEO of chip design software vendor Cadence Design Systems, as the ninth CEO in the company's 56-year history on March 12. This was a little more than three months after the board reportedly forced former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger to leave out of frustration over the slow progress in his comeback plan. During his roughly 37-minute keynote Monday, Tan, who was on Intel's board until last August, vowed to stay on as the company's CEO for "as long as the company needs" and said he will be "equally focused" on strengthening Intel's products and building a "great foundry" with its contract chip manufacturing business, Intel Foundry. "We are here to serve you and earn your trust. I won't be happy and satisfied until we [are] consistently delivering our promise, on time, on quality, to exceed your expectation, and we have to earn it," he said to customers and partners attending the event. For Intel's products, Tan said it's critical for the company to "deliver the great performance that is essential to enable your workload of the future." It's also important for the chipmaker to "deliver great efficiency [that is] essential to enable AI in the [increasingly] power-constrained world," the CEO added. "And we must deliver great quality, on-time delivery without exception," Tan said. In the Client Computing Group, Tan acknowledged that Intel's traditional PC chip business is facing increased competition and, as a result, "cannot stand still." Intel will "continue to strengthen" its products and road map within the Client Computing Group, which includes the Panther Lake processor the company plans to launch later this year using Intel Foundry's Intel 18A manufacturing process, according to Tan. "We also remain focused on building the industry's broadest ecosystem of ISVs and AI applications. We will leverage our capabilities in client to help enable the AI edge," he said. As for Intel's data center products, namely its CPUs, Tan said the company needs to "strengthen" its offerings and admitted that it "lost quite a bit of talent" in this area. "That's my top priority: to recruit some of the best talent in the industry to come back and then to rejoin or join Intel," he said. While Tan said Intel's latest Xeon processors represent a "step forward to enhance our competitiveness," customers and partners told him that the company needs to improve their performance and efficiency in addition to pushing for a lower total cost of ownership. Another important focus is to continue improving CPUs for AI inference because of their "increasing important role" as a low-power option for the workload, according to Tan. As for Intel's AI accelerator chip strategy, Tan said he's not "happy with our current position" and acknowledged that the company's partners and customers "aren't happy either." Michelle Johnston Holthaus, Intel Products CEO, said in previous months that the company's Gaudi chips weren't competitive enough and announced that Intel had canceled its next-generation Falcon Shores chip to focus on a "rack-scale solution." Moving forward, Intel will learn from "past mistakes and work towards a competitive system that we can provide you," according to Tan, who offered no details. "It won't happen overnight, but I know we can get there," he said.

Intel's New CEO Vows to Reform Outdated Development Model | PYMNTS.com

Tan is positioning the company to lead in emerging AI markets spanning cloud, generative and agentic AI and robotics -- while shedding non-core businesses. Intel's new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, is clear-eyed about the chipmaker's many problems and the tough road ahead as he engineers a turnaround to revive this legendary Silicon Valley company. "This is an iconic and essential company that is important for the industry and also to the United States," Tan said in a keynote address at Intel's conference in Las Vegas this week. The nuclear physicist, who dropped out of the Ph.D. program at MIT, is best known for transforming Cadence Design Systems into a robust chip design and software company. He was also a board member at Intel. "We fell behind on innovation. We have been too slow to adapt to meet your needs. You deserve better, and we need to improve, and we will," Tan told his audience of customers and vendors. "Please be brutally honest with us." Tan called this juncture a "defining moment" for the legendary chipmaker. Intel was once the world's most valuable chipmaker -- a crown that would go to Nvidia. With its "Intel Inside" branding, it was the first chipmaker to become a household name. In the 1990s, Intel and Windows became so dominant in PCs that the pair were called "Wintel." Intel founder Gordon Moore's "Moore's Law" still stands 60 years after it was created. Intel's troubles began in the mid-2010s, when it started missing key product deadlines and struggled to advance to 10nm manufacturing, allowing rivals like TSMC and AMD to overtake it in performance and efficiency. Once the industry leader, Intel became hampered by internal bureaucracy, a rigid culture, and a hardware-first mindset that lagged behind a software- and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven future, while competitors like ARM and Nvidia thrived. Intel also famously turned down Apple's request to make chips for the iPhone, paving the way for Qualcomm. In the third quarter of 2024, Intel posted its largest quarterly loss of $16.6 billion, including a $15.9 billion charge to reflect lower valuations and costs to lay off 15,000 employees. Now there are even reports of Intel as a takeover target -- humiliating for a tech icon. "Intel Corp.'s fall from market dominance to takeover target is a tale marked by missed opportunities and rising expenses," wrote Iuri Struta, senior research associate at S&P Global Market Intelligence, in a blog post. In 2020, Intel was the second most valuable chipmaker. As of last September, it had fallen to 14th place, he said. Tan understands the enormity of his task to turn around Intel. "We have a lot of hard work ahead. We have fallen short of your expectations. I will pull together strong teams to correct the past mistakes and start to earn your trust," he said. "I will not be satisfied until we delight all of you." Read more: Intel Faces Potential Breakup as Broadcom and TSMC Explore Deals Tan faces a big challenge in reviving a company with decades of inertia to lead in a market that now moves at hyperspeed. His four areas of focus are: changing the culture, strengthening the core business, incubating and growing new business, and building customer trust. Tan said he will bring Intel back to its roots: an engineering-focused company. He promised to meet with engineers even six to seven levels down from the C-suite to hear their ideas and unleash their creativity. Tan also promised to retain and attract key talent, which had been leaving Intel. Tan said Intel needs to adopt a startup culture to innovate, where every day is Day One. His weekends are filled with meetings with engineers and software architects who have "brilliant" ideas and who "want to change the world. That's when I get excited to work closely with them," Tan said. Tan also plans to simplify the way Intel works because "bureaucracy kills innovation." The startup mindset will enable them to act with speed. "We are operating in a very dynamic, fast-moving industry. Technology adoptions and disruption are accelerating faster than ever. This is being driven by the one transformational force called AI," Tan said. Intel will target three AI areas: cloud AI, generative and agentic AI, and physical AI such as robotics. To that end, Tan said Intel will spin off non-core business divisions but did not name which ones. To right its operations, Tan said Intel must change the way it makes products. The company used to start by making hardware -- chips -- and then developing the software to make it work. "The world has changed. You have to flip that around," Tan said. "You start with the problem, what you're trying to solve. ... Then we work backwards from there." Tan also addressed Intel's product and foundry priorities. In client computing, he reaffirmed a commitment to innovation, noting the competitive landscape has shifted and Intel must not "stand still." Pushing forward with AI-enhanced PCs, the company aims to ship its next-generation Panther Lake processors on its 18A process node later this year. Perhaps most critically, Tan confirmed Intel's ambitions to manufacture chips for customers around the world. "Foundry is a service business that is built on the foundational principle of trust," he said. At this stage in his career, Tan said he has been asked why he would take on one of the most difficult jobs in tech. "The answer is very simple. I love this company," Tan said, with tears in his eyes. "It was very hard for me to watch it struggle. I simply cannot stay on the sidelines knowing that I could help turn things around." Photo: Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan. Credit: Intel livestream

New CEO Lip-Bu Tan vows to change Intel's culture By Investing.com

Investing.com -- On Monday, Lip-Bu Tan, the recently appointed CEO of Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), laid out an ambitious plan to overhaul the company's culture and operational approach during the IntelVision 2025 conference. Tan, who stepped into the CEO role on March 12, has focused his early efforts on engaging with customers and identifying significant areas for improvement. He emphasized the need for Intel to "underpromise and overdeliver," a motto he considers his trademark. Tan's vision for Intel is to become an engineering-centric organization, prioritizing the attraction and retention of top engineering talent to drive innovation and growth. He acknowledged that Intel has experienced a talent drain and stressed the importance of fostering a culture that empowers engineers and spurs innovation. The CEO's mission is to create industry-leading products and establish Intel as the premier foundry, unleashing the potential of its engineering workforce. When questioned as to why he would take the job at Intel, a company that has been behind and struggling for years, Tan admitted, "I love this company... I simply could not stay on the sideline knowing I could help turn things around." In his keynote, Tan spoke candidly about the challenges facing Intel, including the company's struggle to keep pace with innovation and customer needs. He outlined a strategy centered on culture change, focusing on innovation as the core of the business. As CEO, Tan plans to fortify Intel's balance sheet, drive efficiency, and rebuild the talent pool with a clear business plan. He highlighted the need for a startup-like culture within Intel to encourage fresh ideas and internal innovation. The CEO also touched on the potential for Intel to play a significant role in humanoid robotics, teasing future involvement in the sector. He revealed plans to redefine Intel's strategy, freeing up resources by divesting non-core businesses and concentrating on expanding core business areas focused on AI and software 2.0. Tan proposed a shift in product design philosophy from an inside-out to an outside-in approach, prioritizing software design and developing hardware tailored to it. He reiterated Intel's commitment to delivering top-quality products, emphasizing performance, efficiency, and on-time delivery as non-negotiables. The semiconductor industry vet detailed his aspirations for client computing and data centers, including shipping PantherLake on 18a later this year and improving Intel's offerings in AI data and inferencing. Additionally, Tan reaffirmed his dedication to advancing Intel's foundry capabilities, citing the importance of chip production and the advancement of Intel's 18a and future 14a nodes. In closing, Tan made a pledge to Intel's customers, promising dedication to exceeding their expectations and earning their trust. Tan committed himself to the company's journey, vowing to remain at the helm as long as needed.

Rebooting Intel: CEO Lip Bu Tan's Bold Plan for Engineering Excellence and AI Leadership

Emphasis on developing custom, purpose-built silicon to meet industry demands. Lip Bu Tan, Intel's newly appointed CEO, has laid out an ambitious and detailed vision aimed at revitalising the iconic semiconductor giant. Speaking at Intel Vision 2025, Tan underscored a clear commitment to restoring the company's engineering prowess, rebuilding customer trust, and strategically positioning Intel at the forefront of technological innovation. Lip Bu Tan was previously part of the Board of Directors for two years before resigning last year. Tan emphasised that rebuilding customer trust is his primary goal, noting that Intel must adopt a more customer-centric approach. Reflecting on his leadership philosophy, Tan said, "My motto is very simple under promise and over deliver. I will not be satisfied until we delight all of you." This candid acknowledgment of Intel's past performance issues underlines Tan's straightforward and humble leadership style, shaped by years of customer engagement and feedback. Tan intends to ensure Intel consistently meets and exceeds expectations by delivering high-quality products on time, stating clearly that quality and timely delivery are non-negotiable aspects of his strategy. Central to Tan's strategy is a renewed focus on engineering excellence. Recognising Intel's historical strengths, Tan highlighted that the company's success hinges upon attracting and retaining top engineering talent. He acknowledged the talent drain Intel has experienced in recent years and pledged to create a culture that fosters innovation, collaboration, and empowerment among engineers. "I will also put resources behind people and ideas where we can see the opportunity to innovate," Tan stated, "Most importantly, we will simplify the way we work. Bureaucracy kills innovation. I see how small focused teams move very fast and innovate, and take on incumbents. And we're going to practice that in Intel." To facilitate this cultural shift, Tan plans to implement significant internal reforms, including simplifying processes and cultivating a startup-like agility. Drawing from his experience leading Cadence Design Systems, Tan emphasised the value of nimble, highly focused teams capable of rapid innovation and market responsiveness. One of Tan's critical strategic initiatives involves sharpening Intel's focus by divesting non-core business units. This targeted refocusing is designed to streamline operations and allocate resources more effectively towards core areas such as CPUs, artificial intelligence (AI), and advanced chip manufacturing. Tan described these moves as essential for positioning Intel to capitalise on emerging technology trends, particularly around AI-driven computing. Tan explicitly addressed the transformative impact of artificial intelligence, indicating a major strategic pivot to a software-first development approach. Traditionally known for hardware-first designs, Intel under Tan's leadership will shift towards a model where software requirements drive hardware innovation. "Going forward, we will start with the problem i.e. what you(consumers) are trying to solve and the workloads that you need to handle," he explained, "then work backwards from there. This requires embracing the 'software first' design mindset." Highlighting his background in venture capital and technology investment, Tan referenced his successful investments in AI and related software technologies, suggesting Intel would benefit significantly from these insights. He underscored the importance of AI as a transformative force across industries, reshaping how computing infrastructure is developed and utilised. Another strategic pillar under Tan's leadership is the development of custom, purpose-built silicon optimised for specific workloads, especially in AI applications. During his keynote, Tan revealed ongoing collaborations with major data centre and AI platform providers, aiming to define the next generation of X86-based solutions tailored precisely to industry requirements. "I also believe we can play an important role in developing custom silicon that is tailored for specific applications," Tan emphasised, further underscoring his commitment to innovation-driven partnerships. Tan reinforced the importance of Intel's foundry business by stating, "Foundry is a service business and that is built on the foundational principle of trust. Every Foundry customer has their own unique design methodology and style of design." He underscored the need for flexible, resilient, and secure chip manufacturing. He outlined ambitious goals for expanding Intel's foundry services, including accelerating the development and deployment of advanced process technologies such as the critical 18A node. Tan set clear expectations for the high-volume production of Intel's Panther Lake processors on the 18A node later this year. The foundry services, according to Tan, will focus heavily on customer-specific design methodologies, recognising the unique needs and preferences of different customers. Drawing from his Cadence days, Tan understands the importance of tailored services in delivering optimised yield and performance. Addressing industry-wide concerns about energy consumption, particularly given the explosive growth of AI, Tan highlighted Intel's commitment to driving advancements in energy efficiency. He referred to his background in nuclear engineering, mentioning his current advisory role at MIT and emphasising the urgency of developing technologies that tackle growing power constraints head-on. Tan specifically pointed to innovative solutions such as advanced cooling technologies, photonics, and next-generation materials like Gallium Nitride, Silicon Carbide, and Indium Phosphide. These technologies are expected to underpin future Intel products, significantly enhancing their performance and energy efficiency. In his closing remarks, Tan expressed his deep personal commitment to Intel's future, reinforcing that his tenure as CEO is driven by passion rather than necessity. He stated unequivocally, "I will be here as long as the company needs me," demonstrating a steadfast dedication to achieving long-term, sustainable success. Tan's strategic vision for Intel is ambitious, clear, and deeply rooted in his extensive experience and passion for innovation. His message at Intel Vision 2025 emphasised humility, responsiveness, and rigorous execution, providing a clear roadmap intended to reposition Intel as a dominant, agile, and innovative leader in the semiconductor industry.