Intel Corp. CEO Lip-Bu Tan pulled no punches in his first public comments since taking over the scuffling chips giant earlier this month. And he promised a heavy dose of innovation, craftmanship, and culture change to turn things around.
“I’m excited to join Intel at this defining moment… and create the new Intel,” Tan said in a keynote speech at Intel Vision 2025 late Monday. “My No. 1 priority on the job is spending time with customers. It is very clear from conversations with them, that we have a lot of hard work ahead… to correct past mistakes.”
During a nearly 40-minute presentation, Tan — the former Cadence Design Systems Inc. CEO and Intel board member who succeeded Pat Gelsinger in mid-March — said his “love” of the company brought him back. “I could not stand on the sideline” and watch it struggle, he said, as it “fell behind on innovation. We need to adapt and meet your [customers’] needs. We will reinvent how we re-engage with the customer.”
The Silicon Valley pioneer’s product roadmap is likely to run through its 18A process node, particularly with the forthcoming Panther Lake and Nova Lake processors, according to Intel observers.
Panther Lake, the first major product to leverage the 18A process, is scheduled for release later this year. The processors boast a hybrid architecture combining performance cores (P-cores), efficiency cores (E-cores), and potentially low-power efficiency cores (LPE cores), according to Intel.
Next up: Nova Lake CPUs in 2026. Early reports suggest it could feature up to 52 cores using the Coyote Cove and Arctic Wolf architectures. The product will likely leverage a mix of Intel’s internal manufacturing and TSMC’s advanced nodes to improve yield and ensure supply chain resilience.
Intel’s next-generation Xeon processors, the Clearwater Forest series, is expected to debut in the first half of 2026.
It will take consummate teamwork to make it happen, said Tan, an avowed fan of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors.
In a letter to employees and stockholders this month that presaged his speech, Tan was blunt and forthright: The struggling company must simplify operations, slash costs, and rediscover its competitive edge. Underlining a consistent theme, he vowed to create a great foundry business.
“We are moving in a fast industry” led by AI (artificial intelligence),” Tan said Monday, frequently mentioning the importance of quantum computing, photonics, and robotics. “I love (AI) agents. It is driving a total architecture change to the semiconductor industry.” He vowed to vastly improve the company’s middling AI business.
The broad, sweeping themes of Tan’s address seemed to check all the boxes of anxious Intel followers.
“There is a lot of stabilizing factors at Intel including its strength in market share in client and data center CPUs. Also the promise of 18A is encouraging — best outlook for Foundry since its inception,” Daniel Newman, CEO of The Futurum Group, said. “But also, there are a lot of risks with the rise of Arm and the advent of new AI compute where Intel effectively has no meaningful market share (DC GPU and Accelerator). Closing this gap will be a big lift as the competition has a material head start.”
“As for Lip-Bu Tan’s challenges, there are many,” semiconductor consultant Wayne Johnson said in an email. “Clearly, he needs to streamline the operation. That’s easy, well at least on paper. They have thus far missed on AI and let NVIDIA and AMD reap early rewards. It’s not too late. We’re still in early days of AI and great opportunity remains. But they must make parallel, concerted focus in both product-level innovation and customer-led foundry. Getting one or the other right probably isn’t enough. They may also want to broaden their focus into non-traditional areas (i.e., non-silicon) that create additive growth potential.”
Near the beginning of Monday’s speech, Tan noted his admiration of American essayist Henry David Thoreau and his contrarian nature. When visiting Thoreau’s cabin in Concord, Mass., long ago, Tan said he lingered for 45 minutes to study its fine, detailed work. “A lot about business is building craftmanship,” he said.
“We will return to our roots of an engineering company… with a startup mentality,” Tan said. “We will be humble and want your honest feedback.”
