Intel has named a new CEO, three months after former CEO Pat Gelsinger was fired from the company. The new CEO is Lip-Bu Tan, who served as CEO of hardware and chip development services company Cadence from 2009 to 2021 and was also a member of Intel’s board of directors from 2022 to 2024.
While Intel’s official version was that Gelsinger had stepped down after less than four years as CEO, reports quickly emerged that he had been ousted by the board after they lost faith in his strategy to turn around the beleaguered company. Gelsinger worked at Intel for 30 years, from 1979 to 2009, before leaving, eventually returning in 2021 to take over as CEO.
Tan will take over as CEO on March 18 from interim co-chairs David Zinsner and Michelle (MJ) Holthaus. Zinsner will remain Intel’s CFO, while Holthaus will remain general manager of Intel Products.
“Intel has a powerful and differentiated computing platform, a vast customer base, and a strong manufacturing base that grows stronger every day as we reshape our technology roadmap,” Tan said in a statement. “I look forward to joining the company and continuing the work that the entire Intel team is doing to position our business for the future.”
This isn’t the first time Tan has become CEO after serving on a company’s board; Cadence has done the same. According to an Intel press release, Tan more than doubled Cadence’s revenue as CEO.
The question now is whether Tan will revert to Intel’s previous plan to win from its own chip manufacturing business while simplifying its goals, or accelerate plans to spin off some or all of the manufacturing business, or perhaps even sell part of the company.
