Four months after Pat Gelsinger’s abrupt departure, Intel appoints a new CEO. Lip-Bu Tan must further support the company’s transition to foundry specialist and regain technical leadership in chip production.
Intel has a new captain: Lip-Bu Tan. Tan takes over the role of CEO from interim co-CEOs David Zinsner and Michelle Johnston Holthaus. The man has considerable relevant experience. Between 2022 and 2024, he served on Intel’s board of directors, and in recent years, he has been involved in management at companies including HPE, chip manufacturer SMIC, and Cadence Design Systems.
Tan is not just a manager. The new CEO studied physics in Singapore, before obtaining a nuclear engineering degree from MIT in the US. In theory, the new CEO thus combines relevant management knowledge with a technical background, which should at least help in understanding the challenges Intel engineers face today.
In Pat’s Shoes
Tan succeeds Pat Gelsinger. Gelsinger took over the helm from Bob Swan in 2021, under whose leadership Intel had fallen significantly behind technologically. Swan and his predecessors were financial men who let Intel evolve from a company of innovation and technicians into a cumbersome organization driven by shareholder interests.
Gelsinger faced a major task: Intel had lost its technical superiority in its factories and was delivering chips that were no longer superior to those of competitor AMD. The man, with his technical background, initiated a trajectory where side projects were divested, and Intel’s Foundry expertise was more broadly utilized. The creation of Intel Foundry is Gelsinger’s most important achievement.
Gelsinger couldn’t turn the tanker around in time and was sidelined by the board of directors in December 2024. Since then, the company has been led by interim CEOs: again, two management types without technical backgrounds.
Challenge
Tan now faces a major challenge. The company must compete with AMD, which makes excellent server and PC chips together with manufacturer TSMC. Intel’s responses are always too slow, partly due to delays in the start-up of much-needed new advanced production lines. Competition is also suddenly emerging from the ARM side: x86 for laptops or desktops is no longer a given. In this context, Tan’s mission is to restore Intel’s glory.