NASDAQ-listed Intel Corporation announced Wednesday that its board of directors has appointed Lip-Bu Tan, an accomplished technology leader with deep semiconductor industry experience, as Chief Executive Officer, effective March 18.

He succeeds Interim Co-CEOs David Zinsner and Michelle (MJ) Johnston Holthaus. Tan will also rejoin the Intel board of directors after stepping down from the board in August 2024, Intel said in a statement.

Zinsner will remain executive vice president and chief financial officer, and Johnston Holthaus will remain CEO of Intel Products. Frank D. Yeary, who took on the role of interim executive chair of the board during the search for a new CEO, will revert to being the independent chair of the board upon Tan 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,” Yeary said. “We are delighted to have Lip-Bu as our CEO as we work to accelerate our turnaround and capitalize on the significant growth opportunities ahead.

On his appointment, Tan said, “I am honored to join Intel as CEO. I have tremendous respect and admiration for this iconic company, and I see significant opportunities to remake our business in ways that serve our customers better and create value for our shareholders.”

Separately in a Linkedin post, he wrote, “Together, we are going to restore Intel’s position as a world-class products company and establish ourselves as a world-class foundry focusing on delighting our customers.”

His appointment also comes three months after Intel ousted CEO and company veteran Pat Gelsinger, whose ambitious and costly plan to turn the company around was faltering and sapping investor confidence, Reuters reported.

According to Reuters, the US chipmaker is undergoing a historic transition as it tries to emerge from one of its bleakest periods. While struggling to cash in on a boom in investment in advanced AI chips that has fired up the fortunes of market leader such as Nvidia, Intel is spending heavily to become a contract manufacturer of chips for other companies, leading some investors to worry about pressure on its cash flows.

Earlier media reports in the past two months also said chip rivals including Broadcom were evaluating Intel’s chip design and marketing business, while TSMC has separately studied controlling some or all of Intel’s chip plants, potentially as part of an investor consortium or other structure.

Reuters reported on Tuesday that TSMC had approached some of Intel’s biggest potential manufacturing customers about forming a joint venture to operate Intel’s factories, after US President Donald Trump’s administration requested TSMC to help turn around the troubled chipmaker.

According to Intel, Tan is a longtime technology investor and widely respected executive with more than 20 years of semiconductor and software experience as well as deep relationships across Intel’s ecosystem. He served as CEO of Cadence Design Systems from 2009 to 2021, where he led a reinvention of the company and drove a cultural transformation centered on customer-centric innovation.

During his time as CEO, Cadence more than doubled its revenue, expanded operating margins and delivered a stock price appreciation of more than 3,200 percent.

Tan served as a member of the Cadence board of directors for 19 years, from his appointment in 2004 through his service as executive chairman from 2021 to 2023 following his tenure as CEO.

He is also a founding managing partner of VC firm Walden Catalyst Ventures and chairman of Walden International. Walden Catalyst Ventures focuses on data, deep tech, AI, cloud, fintech, and digital biology. The VC firm, which earlier backed Zoom, invests across the US, Europe, and Israel, information from the website showed.

Founded in 1987, Walden International is an international VC firm with a presence in Asia and the US. The firm’s past investments include Creative, Jobstreet.com, Tech in Asia, among others.

In November last year, Walden International and Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, has launched a new VC fund to support deep tech spin-offs from the university. Known as the Nanyang Frontier Fund, it has an initial target sum of S$50 million. The fund is Singapore’s first VC fund dedicated to a university.

Tan has significant public company board experience, currently serving on the boards of Credo Technology Group and Schneider Electric.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in physics from NTU in Singapore, a Master of Science 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.

#Intel #Semiconductor #TechLeadership #ChipIndustry #LipBuTan