Intel has appointed Lip-Bu Tan as its new Chief Executive Officer, ending a three-month leadership gap following the departure of Pat Gelsinger. Tan will officially assume the role on March 18, taking over from interim co-CEOs David Zinsner and Michelle (MJ) Johnston Holthaus. Zinsner will return to his role as CFO, while Holthaus continues as head of Intel Products.
Tan is best known for his long tenure as CEO of Cadence Design Systems from 2009 to 2021, where he more than doubled the company’s revenue. He also served on Intel’s board of directors from 2022 to 2024, giving him insider experience with the company’s ongoing transformation. This isn’t the first time Tan has moved from board member to CEO—he took a similar path at Cadence.
While Intel initially claimed that Gelsinger retired, reports suggest that the board pushed him out after losing confidence in his strategy to revive the struggling chipmaker. Gelsinger had been at Intel for over 30 years and returned in 2021 to try and restore its leadership in semiconductor innovation.
Tan now inherits a company at a crossroads. He will need to decide whether to continue Intel’s vision of owning both chip design and manufacturing, or to spin off parts of its foundry business—a strategy some insiders have called for amid growing pressure from rivals like TSMC and AMD.
In his first public memo, Tan didn’t outline major changes but emphasized key themes:
“Together, we will work hard to restore Intel’s position as a world-class products company, establish ourselves as a world-class foundry, and delight our customers like never before.”
He added that Intel must be “an engineering-focused company” willing to “take calculated risks to disrupt and leapfrog” in technology. With AI, advanced chips, and manufacturing in the spotlight, all eyes will now be on Tan’s next move.