Intel appoints Lip-Bu Tan as its CEO
49 comments
·March 12, 2025yoyoyo1122
silisili
Tan's complaints seem to be the same ones I read here over and over from ex-employees, so hopefully he can actually turn it around.
Galanwe
The current CEO was supposed to be a down to earth, technical, no bureaucracy guy as well.
melling
There is no current permanent CEO. Pat Gelsinger got fired last December. I liked him but it sounds like the board got impatient.
Intel trying to regain a foothold in fabs is costly and time consuming. Hopefully, they are finally able to turn it around.
htrp
so he's getting knifed after 6 months and Intel will be in even worse shape?
outside1234
[flagged]
Alupis
> The current CEO was supposed to be a down to earth, technical, no bureaucracy guy as well.
Turning a ship the size of Intel is a super power in it's own right. Especially one with such a large entrenched bureaucracy as Intel has.
Politics aside for a moment - we're seeing the death bellows of many large, entrenched bureaucracies right now with DOGE - the main difference is the fight is in full public view instead of behind closed doors. We can only imagine and speculate at the resistance Pat and others met while trying to change Intel's course.
The infamous Oscar Wilde quote is very applicable: "The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy." - Ever large bureaucracy eventually exists largely to preserve itself. This is why it is so incredibly difficult to reduce the size of a bureaucracy. Every member is convinced the organization will fail tomorrow if they are let go today, and every member fights/resists any and all changes that threaten their bureaucracy and the status quo.
Best of luck to Tan - I truly hope they succeed where many have failed at Intel. AMD needs a healthy Intel to drive motivation and competition. The world will be watching.
rickandmortyy
[dead]
neelm
If he wants to succeed, he will need to reconsistute the board. That's a tough one since they appointed him, but otherwise it won't work. The type of transformation Intel needs to go through won't withstand a myopic, short term oriented bureaucracy.
alienthrowaway
> If he wants to succeed, he will need to reconsistute the board.
Intel is a publicly listed company.
endemic
IIRC when Jobs came back to Apple, there was a major board shakeup.
beambot
Yes, and I'm sure all those public shareholders are mighty unhappy with the current board's stewardship.
missedthecue
Unfortunately, index funds and mutual funds own about 68% of the Intel, with Vanguard retirement funds being the biggest. These passive custodian investor companies just vote along with the board's recommendation rather than making opinionated or activist decisions.
7speter
He left said board about 6 months ago after having a falling out with the previous CEO, so…
jauntywundrkind
He's supposedly quite low level, savvy about Platform Development Kits (PDK). Worked at Cadence, so he knows a lot about relating to other people making chips, selling IP, working with EDA tools.
A lot of potential here!
The disagreement with the board was supposedly related more to elements of the board trying to parts up and sell off bits of Intel. Harder to report that directly. Good for him, food sign if true.
Today was a very very good day to be hanging out on TechPoutine podcast. Very fun to have this as breaking news at the end of stream. https://www.youtube.com/live/aSoYz9Qp1xI
alecco
> That's what I'm trying to understand. His educational background was in Physics/Nuclear Engineering so he's obviously a smart guy, and he was CEO/Chairman of Cadence for 15 years, but other than that his 40+ year career has most been in VC and being on the boards of an incredibly large number of companies.
He is no Pat. He is no Andy. He is a business guy with some hard science behind (not electronics per se). It doesn't feel right.
ksec
>He is a business guy with some hard science behind (not electronics per se). It doesn't feel right.
I think you need to look up Cadence and look into how the fabless industry works. Picking him means Intel is possibly about to spin off or spin out the Chip division and only focus on Fabless.
nickpsecurity
Anyone that's successfully been running hardware companies would be where I'd start. Offer the best of them much more money than they're currently making. Actually, hire a dream team of them. Turning Intel around would be worth paying a high price.
gkanai
> It doesn't feel right.
Who would you have as CEO?
UncleOxidant
Gelsinger. Should've kept Pat and gotten rid of (at least some of) the board.
rabidonrails
>>The disagreement with the board was supposedly related more to elements of the board trying to parts up and sell off bits of Intel.
If true this would be very interesting. The most recent rumors were TSMC was trying to grab a part of Intel and have Nvidia/Broadcom/AMD take over the rest. Bringing in a CEO that literally left the board because he was against carving up Intel would be quite the signal from the board.
1024core
> Tan left Intel's board last year over disagreements on how to turn around the company. He felt Intel had too many layers of middle management
Good sign.
markus_zhang
There will be a all-hands in the next few weeks, supposedly. I hope whoever sees this reply, if you are in a position to do so comfortably, ask him straightforwardly whether he has or has heard about a plan to knife and sell INTC in the next 18 months.
alecco
Intel employees are at high risk of losing their jobs. I don't think cornering the new CEO at an all-hands is a good idea. And I wouldn't even trust his answer, anyway.
tester756
What does he bring over Pat or Michelle?
DebtDeflation
That's what I'm trying to understand. His educational background was in Physics/Nuclear Engineering so he's obviously a smart guy, and he was CEO/Chairman of Cadence for 15 years, but other than that his 40+ year career has most been in VC and being on the boards of an incredibly large number of companies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lip-Bu_Tan
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lip-bu-tan-284a7846/details/expe...
bloomingkales
They may have just agreed to get Intel to this point and hand it off.
mannyv
They fired Pat and went the M&A route. Apparently the board changed its mind again.
null
alecco
Sounds like the guy to trim Intel to be sold in in parts.
Intel engineers: thank you for these amazing machines, for all these years. They shaped many lives. We salute you.
frosting1337
Actually, he sounds like the opposite, but anyway.
ChrisArchitect
Remaking Our Company for the Future: A message from Lip-Bu Tan, who has been named Intel CEO, to company employees.
https://newsroom.intel.com/corporate/lip-bu-tan-remaking-our...
gautamcgoel
Let's wish him luck. He will sure as hell need it.
lvl155
I am not sure if Intel can survive on its own. Games changed quite a bit and Nvidia is about to enter the space and will likely gain significant shares if they bundle their products in anticompetitive ways. It will be cutthroat for both Intel and AMD. But if he pulls it off, he will go down in history as the guy who saved Intel.
foldl2022
Tan looks like Pat. Amazing.
system2
It spiked the stock to $23. Let's see how long it takes to go back to $19.50 again. Intel became a pump and dump stock.
Lip-Bu Tan was previously on the board but left after disagreements:
> Over time, Tan grew frustrated by the company’s large workforce, its approach to contract manufacturing and Intel’s risk-averse and bureaucratic culture, according to the sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly.
https://www.reuters.com/technology/intel-board-member-quit-a...