Intel has finally announced a new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, who will take over the job on March 18. He left Intel in a scandal last year after disagreeing with the company’s turnaround plan, but will now be tasked with leading the company out of its crisis. A press release announcing the appointment described Tan as an experienced technology leader with a long history in the semiconductor industry.
Image source: Intel
Tan will succeed interim CEOs David Zinsner and Michelle Johnston Holthaus, who were appointed to jointly run Intel following Patrick Gelsinger’s abrupt resignation in December. Tan will also join Intel’s board of directors, which he left in August 2024.
Zinsner will remain Intel’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, and Johnston Holthouse will serve as CEO of Intel Products. Frank Yeary, who has been serving as interim chairman, will return to serving as independent chairman of the board after Tang takes over.
In a press release, Intel executives heaped praise on the company’s new CEO. Yiri said, “Lip-Boo is an exceptional leader whose technology industry expertise, deep relationships in the product and contract chip ecosystems, and proven track record of creating shareholder value are exactly what Intel needs as its next CEO. Over his long and distinguished career, he has earned a reputation as an innovator who puts customers first, delivers differentiated solutions to win in the marketplace, and builds high-performing teams to succeed.”
Tan himself said of his appointment: “I am honored to join Intel as CEO. I have tremendous respect and admiration for this iconic company and see significant opportunities to reshape our business. I look forward to joining the team and continuing the work that everyone at Intel has done to prepare the company for the future.”
But before leaving Intel last August, Tang fell out with the company’s then-leaders over the changes needed. He pushed for layoffs, including among mid-level managers who did not contribute significantly to Intel’s engineering efforts, according to Reuters sources. Tang and some former executives believed the company’s headcount was too bloated. Intel’s individual project teams, for example, were five times larger than those of rivals such as AMD.
Tan said Intel was overburdened with a bureaucratic layer of middle managers who were holding back the development of its server and desktop chip divisions. He believed that those employees should be targeted for layoffs.
It is highly likely that Tan will begin laying off excess staff soon after taking over. The appointment of a new leader has encouraged investors, with the company’s shares jumping 12% in after-hours trading on Wednesday.
Tan is an executive with more than 20 years of experience in the semiconductor and software industries. From 2009 to 2021, he served as CEO of Cadence Design Systems, where he led the company’s turnaround. Under his leadership, Cadence more than doubled revenue, increased operating margin, and increased stock price by more than 3,200%. From 2021 to 2023, he served as executive chairman of Cadence’s board of directors.
Tan holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, a master’s degree in nuclear engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an MBA from the University of San Francisco. In 2022, he received the Robert N. Noyce Award, the Semiconductor Industry Association’s highest honor.
Finally, Tan is Intel’s fourth CEO in seven years. Following Brian Krzanich’s controversial resignation in 2018 after revelations of an inappropriate relationship with an employee, Bob Swan took over in January 2019. He stepped down two years later after Intel began losing market share to competitors and faced delays in chip launches.
Patrick Gelsinger
Swan was replaced by Gelsinger in 2021 with a bold plan to transform Intel’s business — he wanted to turn the company into a contract manufacturer, making chips for other companies as well as for itself. But Intel’s chip revenues continued to decline, and investors were wary of the significant capital expenditures required to make such a major shift, building a $20 billion manufacturing facility in Ohio.