Intel hires former board member as new CEO in struggling chipmaker's
latest comeback attempt
[March 13, 2025] By
MICHAEL LIEDTKE
Struggling chipmaker Intel has hired former board member and
semiconductor industry veteran Lip-Bu Tan as the latest in a succession
of CEOs to attempt to turn around a once-dominant company that helped
define Silicon Valley.
Tan, 65, will take over the daunting job next Tuesday, more than three
months after Intel's previous CEO, Pat Gelsinger, abruptly retired amid
a deepening downturn that triggered massive layoffs and raised questions
about the chipmaker's ability to survive as an independent company.
This won't be Tan's first time running a semiconductor company, nor his
first association with Intel. He spent more than a decade as CEO of
Cadence Design Systems, which makes software that helps designs
processors, and joined Intel's board of directors in 2022 before
stepping down last August. Tan will rejoin Intel's board in addition to
becoming CEO.
“Lip-Bu is an exceptional leader whose technology industry expertise,
deep relationships across the product and foundry ecosystems, and proven
track record of creating shareholder value is exactly what Intel needs
in its next CEO,” Intel's interim Executive Chairman Frank Yeary said.
Intel has been led by interim co-CEOs, David Zinsner and Michelle
Johnston Holthaus, since Gelsinger walked away from a job that he
undertook in February 2021.
Although Gelsinger arrived at Intel amid high hopes, his tenure was a
major letdown as Intel's stock price plunged 60%, wiping out $160
billion in shareholder wealth. Leading up to his departure last year,
Intel laid of 17,500 of its employees — about 15% of its workforce — and
suspended its dividend to save money on its way to an annual loss of $19
billion.
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The Intel sign is shown at Intel headquarters in Santa Clara,
Calif., Monday, Dec. 12, 2011. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma,File)
 More recently, Intel delayed the
opening of two new chip factories i n Ohio to ensure the projects
are completed in a “financially responsible manner.” The project is
supposed to draw upon the $7.8 billion in funding earmarked for
Intel in the CHIPS Incentives Program created during the
administration of President Joe Biden.
It was the latest sign of distress for Intel, a Santa Clara,
California, company that helped launch Silicon Valley by developing
the microprocessors that enabled the personal computer revolution
under the leadership of its CEO at that time, Andy Grove.
But as its leadership changed Intel missed the technological shift
to mobile computing triggered by Apple's 2007 release of the iPhone,
and it's lagged more nimble chipmakers. Intel's troubles have been
magnified since the advent of artificial intelligence — a booming
field where the chips made by once-smaller rival Nvidia have become
tech's hottest commodity.
Nvida now boasts a market value of $2.8 trillion compared to Intel's
$90 billion. Intel's stock price rose more than 10% in Wednesday's
extended trading after Tan's hiring was announced, indicating
investors believe he will revive the company's fortunes.
While Tan was Cadence Design's CEO from January 2009 to May 2021,
the company's stock price increased by 44-fold.
Tan's past accomplishments resulted him being named winner of the
Semiconductor Industry Association's 2022 Robert Noyce Award — an
honor named after one of Intel's co-founders.
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