Intel’s new CEO faces fundamental problems

Its processors are back in demand, but Tan acknowledges the firm has ‘a long way to go.’

- By IAN KING

CHIANG YING-YING Associated Press

INTEL CEO Lip-Bu Tan delivers a speech during the Computex 2025 exhibition in Taiwan in May 2025.

After Lip-Bu Tan became chief executive of Intel Corp. in March last year, the struggling company’s shares went nowhere for seven months while the chipmaker was getting trounced in the market for artificial intelligence.

But after forging ties to the world’s biggest tech titans — and winning over President Trump — Tan is kicking off year two on a decidedly higher note. Apple Inc. and Tesla Inc. are showing interest in the company’s manufacturing. The processors it makes are back in demand, and budding optimism that Intel will finally start to benefit from the AI boom has sent its stock to a record.

Before Tan can deliver on shareholders’ rising expectations, he has to make changes within the 57-year-old company that was formerly a leader in semiconductor manufacturing. Since becoming CEO, Tan has spent far more time outside the company than inside and has not widely explained his specific plan to fix products and manufacturing to employees, according to more than a dozen current and former staff, who were not authorized to speak publicly.

The fundamental issues remain, they said: Intel needs products that can win back lost share, and manufacturing that’s so good, even rivals will have to give it billions of dollars in orders. Neither of those is a given.

Tan, in his first interview as CEO, said he recognizes the company still has “a long way to go.”

“Intel has the technology, talent and scale to lead again, but leadership is earned through execution,” he said.