New Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan takes the reins with a familiar but faster plan

Taking a tech industry titan back to the heights from which it once reigned is no easy task for anyone. Just ask Pat Gelsinger, former CEO and multi-decade veteran of Intel, who was tapped to lead the turnaround the company realized it needed a little over four years ago.

Gelsinger, widely seen as the right choice for the role at the time, laid out a plan to get both the company’s products and semiconductor manufacturing prowess back on track. He arguably made solid progress on both goals. Unfortunately, the company’s board of directors – and the public markets – didn’t feel the improvements were happening fast enough, and he was forced to depart from the company last December.

Fast forward a few months to the company’s appropriately named Vision conference, where newly appointed CEO Lip-Bu Tan took the stage in his first major appearance to share where he wants the company to go.

But unsurprisingly, he’s plans are not radically different from the plans Gelsinger initiated, but there are some key adjustments that could drive the kind of faster changes tech industry watchers – and the markets – are eager to see.

Like Gelsinger, Lip-Bu Tan is a Silicon Valley veteran. He started a successful venture capital fund (Walden International), served on the boards of numerous tech companies, and most notably, led Cadence – a leader in EDA chip design software – as CEO. During his 12-year tenure there, he pulled off a very successful turnaround. That experience makes him a strong fit for Intel, given Cadence’s crucial role in chip design, manufacturing, IP, and technology leadership.

At Intel, of course, the stakes are significantly higher. For over 50 years, the company has been seen as a tech industry leader, driving some of the most important computing advances in client devices, servers, and the cloud – and, until recently, leading in chip manufacturing.

Also see: Intel’s comeback plan: Panther Lake in 2025, Nova Lake in 2026, says CEO Lip-Bu Tan

Recognizing this, and building on the foundation that Gelsinger laid out, Lip-Bu Tan made it clear he believes Intel has a vital role to play in both creating new semiconductor products and operating as a chip foundry – not just for its own chips but also for other major chip design firms.

It’s a big, difficult, long-term goal – and one that’s definitely sparked some healthy debate – but ultimately, I believe, the right one for the company. Especially given the ongoing geopolitical tensions that continue to worry many tech industry observers, there’s no question that the U.S. needs a major player in chip manufacturing.

Intel is the only real option. To put it simply, Intel and its semiconductor manufacturing efforts are too important to fail – or to disappear. Now, it may be that Intel spins off the foundry business into an independent entity at a later time, but for now, it seems clear – and Lip-Bu Tan emphasized – that it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

The continued push in chip manufacturing is particularly important and timely, as the company is finally on the verge of regaining a leadership position in advanced process technologies. The upcoming 18A process – still slated for release at the end of this year with Intel’s Panther Lake CPUs for laptops – brings several key innovations, including backside power delivery and RibbonFET transistors, that are currently exclusive to Intel. Together, these should allow Intel to produce chips that are both faster and more efficient than those made using TSMC’s 2nm process.

The big unanswered question for the foundry business, though, is whether Intel can convince other major chip designers – think Apple, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Marvell, etc. – to commit to significant production volumes. At the moment, most seem to be testing the waters with both 18A and the future 14A process the company previously announced, but closing those deals will be a major test for the new CEO. With a foundry-focused event scheduled for the end of April, expectations are high for some real news on that front.

On the product side, Intel’s current roadmap looks solid by most accounts, but the challenge will be maintaining momentum. There are also plenty of questions around which projects Lip-Bu Tan might cancel, restart, or launch.

His Vision speech offered some hints, touching on the growing importance of AI acceleration, robotics, and more. He also talked about revitalizing Intel’s culture, aiming to make it an engineering-driven company once again – one with the nimbleness and speed of a startup. All of these are lofty goals, but the real test will be how well he can execute on those cultural and product goals.

And while products matter, one of the most important things Intel needs to regain is the industry’s confidence. The past few years have been tough, and the uncertainty surrounding Intel’s future has arguably dragged down broader tech industry momentum – especially in the PC market. If Lip-Bu Tan can restore confidence in Intel then that will be an extremely big step forward. In fact, that’s likely the first impact that the new CEO can make… and hopes are high that he’s the right person to do that.

Ultimately, the question will boil down to how Lip-Bu Tan’s vision for the “new Intel” can carry the company through what will undoubtedly be a tough few years. The question isn’t just what kind of products it can create and what kinds of business it can land in its foundry business, but also how the company redefines itself in the AI computing era, where many of the company’s traditional strengths matter less than they once did.

The tools are clearly there. The motivation seems to be as well. So let’s hope this “new” Intel can reclaim its spot as a critical innovator and tech industry leader.

Bob O’Donnell is the founder and chief analyst of TECHnalysis Research, LLC a technology consulting firm that provides strategic consulting and market research services to the technology industry and professional financial community. You can follow him on X @bobodtech