Intel Corp on Wednesday announced tech industry veteran Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) as its new chief executive, boosting shares of the US computer chipmaker struggling to catch up in the artificial intelligence (AI) race. Tan told the Intel team his focus would be on engineering, saying it “won’t be easy” to overcome challenges faced by the company.
Tan, who was born in Malaysia, would start as Intel chief on Tuesday next week, the company said.
Shares were up more than 10 percent in after-market trade.
Photo: REUTERS
Intel is one of Silicon Valley’s most iconic companies, but its fortunes have been eclipsed by Asian powerhouses Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co, which dominate the made-to-order semiconductor business. The company was also caught by surprise with the emergence of Nvidia Corp, a graphics chip maker, as the world’s preeminent AI chip provider.
Tan’s predecessor, Pat Gelsinger, was forced out as Intel chief in December last year after the board lost confidence in his plans to turn the company around. Gelsinger’s abrupt departure came just months after the company vowed to cut more than 15,000 jobs in a draconian cost reduction plan and paused or delayed construction on several chipmaking facilities.
“I believe with every fiber of my being that we have what it takes to win,” Tan said in a letter to his team, vowing that Intel would be an engineering-focused company.
“In areas where we are behind the competition, we need to take calculated risks to disrupt and leapfrog,” he said.
While chief of Cadence Design Systems Inc from 2009 to 2021, Tan transformed the company and more than doubled its revenue, according to the Intel board.
Intel last month extended the timeline for completing two new fabrication plants in Ohio, saying it is taking a prudent approach to the US$28 billion project.
The incoming CEO said that he would stick with his predecessor’s plan to make chips for other companies.
“We will work hard to restore Intel’s position as a world-class products company, establish ourselves as a world-class foundry and delight our customers like never before,” he said in the letter. “That’s what this moment demands of us as we remake Intel for the future.”
Plowing ahead with the foundry strategy means taking on TSMC in a market that the Taiwanese company pioneered. TSMC is dominant in the field, churning out chips for clients such as Nvidia, Apple Inc and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
It is still an open question whether Tan might split up the foundry and chip-design businesses, Raymond James Financial Inc analyst Srini Pajjuri said in a note to clients. Barring that move, Intel would have to demonstrate that it could produce better products.
Members of US President Donald Trump’s administration have floated the idea of TSMC backing a spinoff of Intel’s factory business. However, TSMC’s recent plan to invest US$100 billion in its own factories suggests that it is not aiming to pursue that idea.
“In case of no split, the stock will likely remain a show-me story until investors get a better sense of the company’s manufacturing road map,” Pajjuri said.
In addition, Intel is playing catch-up in the hottest segment of the industry: AI chips for data centers. Nvidia remains dominant in that area.
“Intel lacks an AI narrative,” Pajjuri said. “As such, we remain on the sidelines as we await to hear from the new CEO on his plans for the company.”
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. (better known as Foxconn) ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose 60 places to reach No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc. at 348th, Pegatron Corp. at 461st, CPC Corp., Taiwan at 494th and Wistron Corp. at 496th. According to Fortune, the world’s
NEW PRODUCTS: MediaTek plans to roll out new products this quarter, including a flagship mobile phone chip and a GB10 chip that it is codeveloping with Nvidia Corp MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday projected that revenue this quarter would dip by 7 to 13 percent to between NT$130.1 billion and NT$140 billion (US$4.38 billion and US$4.71 billion), compared with NT$150.37 billion last quarter, which it attributed to subdued front-loading demand and unfavorable foreign exchange rates. The Hsinchu-based chip designer said that the forecast factored in the negative effects of an estimated 6 percent appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the greenback. “As some demand has been pulled into the first half of the year and resulted in a different quarterly pattern, we expect the third quarter revenue to decline sequentially,”
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
DIVERSIFYING: Taiwanese investors are reassessing their preference for US dollar assets and moving toward Europe amid a global shift away from the greenback Taiwanese investors are reassessing their long-held preference for US-dollar assets, shifting their bets to Europe in the latest move by global investors away from the greenback. Taiwanese funds holding European assets have seen an influx of investments recently, pushing their combined value to NT$13.7 billion (US$461 million) as of the end of last month, the highest since 2019, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Over the first half of this year, Taiwanese investors have also poured NT$14.1 billion into Europe-focused funds based overseas, bringing total assets up to NT$134.8 billion, according to data from the Securities Investment Trust and Consulting Association (SITCA),
RSS