Lip-Bu Tan could also be probably the most highly effective expertise executives you’ve by no means heard of. As he steps into one of many highest-profile jobs on the planet, CEO of troubled, storied chip maker Intel, his efficiency shall be on full show.
Tan, named Intel CEO on Wednesday, faces an infinite problem in turning across the operations of an organization that put the “silicon” in Silicon Valley.
Whereas little identified to the general public, his benefit is that nearly each one among Intel’s former and potential clients is aware of him and has completed enterprise with him, both shopping for one of many many start-ups he backed or utilizing software program from an organization he ran.
Tan rubs shoulders with the likes of Lisa Su from AMD and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, two AI chip leaders who, based on Reuters stories, had been pitched to spend money on Intel. His efforts are additionally prone to be carefully watched by US President Donald Trump, who is raring for Intel to rebound.
Tan “can leverage his expertise and particularly his trade connections, whereas additionally pursuing excellence inside Intel”, stated impartial analyst Jack Gold. “Hopefully the board will keep out of his means as he makes wanted modifications.”
To proper the semiconductor trade’s largest ship, Tan, 65, could use underdog methods that helped him flip round smaller firms that later grew to become large.
Begin-ups
Born in Malaysia, raised in Singapore and now a naturalised American citizen, Tan got here to the US for his childhood of superior schooling, finding out nuclear engineering on the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise. He then moved to California for enterprise college and based enterprise capital agency Walden Worldwide in 1987. That agency, named for the pond the place author Henry David Thoreau sought an unconventional life, made unconventional bets.
Tan believed that comparatively small groups of start-up engineers with good chip design concepts might efficiently compete towards incumbent chip giants, and he poured cash into tons of of start-ups. For instance, he took a stake in Annapurna Labs, a start-up later bought by Amazon.com for US$370-million that has develop into the guts of its in-house chip division. Amazon says it now deploys extra of its personal CPUs than it does these from Intel.
Learn: Can anybody save Intel?
He additionally invested in Nuvia, which Qualcomm purchased for $1.4-billion in 2021, making it a central a part of its push to compete with Intel within the laptop computer and PC chip markets.
Tan stays actively concerned with start-ups that would both develop into opponents or acquisition targets for Intel. For instance, earlier this week he invested in AI photonic startup Celestial AI, which is backed by Intel rival AMD.
Each as an investor and CEO, Tan was early to recognise a serious development that has swept the chip trade over the previous 30 years — that designing chips and manufacturing them would break up into two totally different specialties.
Tan from 2009 to 2021 was CEO of Cadence Design Programs, a chip design software program agency whose fortunes he revived. Tan targeted Cadence round supplying the software program for stylish designs and partnered carefully with TSMC, which from its founding days swore it will focus solely on manufacturing.
Over Tan’s time at Cadence, the agency’s inventory appreciated 3 200% and it landed Apple as one among its largest clients because the iPhone maker shifted away from suppliers akin to Intel and in direction of its personal chips.
Learn: Intel on the chopping block
Cadence’s instruments additionally grew to become central to chip trade corporations akin to Broadcom, which helps Google, Amazon and others design their very own AI chips and have them made by TSMC.
“He did a extremely good job of pointing Cadence in the suitable route,” stated Karl Freund, analyst with Cambrian AI Analysis. “Cadence actually aligned themselves with TSMC — they noticed them as a pacesetter and the go-to store.” — Stephen Nellis and Max A Cherney, (c) 2025 Reuters
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