Letter from Intel CEO
Dear Stockholder,
When I stepped into my role as CEO of Intel earlier this month, I did so with a pragmatic focus on the business and a profound belief in our company. While there are clear challenges that we need to overcome, there are also significant opportunities to accelerate our turnaround and improve our performance.
Achieving the results I know Intel is capable of starts by refocusing on our customers. This has been priority number one since my first day on the job. I am listening carefully to their feedback so that we continue driving the changes needed to delight our customers and strengthen our competitive position.
Plain and simple, the time for talk is over. We must turn our words into action and deliver on our commitments. I have been pleased to see the leadership team has already started driving the culture change needed to make this happen. As CEO, I will continue to drive this transformation so that we move faster, work smarter and make it easier for customers to win with Intel. Most importantly, I will empower our people to do what they do best -- push the limits of technology and innovate to achieve new breakthroughs.
Actions to Accelerate Progress
Intel’s future success requires an honest assessment of past performance. As I look back on the company’s 2024 results, there is no sugarcoating the fact that we fell short of your expectations. There are many reasons for this, but there are no excuses. I am focused on solutions that will enhance the long-term performance of the company and deliver for you, our shareholders.
The work our team has been doing to deliver on the $10 billion cost action plan we announced last year plays an important role. It has required decisive actions, including a 15% reduction in the size of our workforce last year as we right-size the business for the future. We will remain focused on executing this plan to reduce our operating expenses and capital expenditures, simplify our portfolio, and eliminate organizational complexity -- all while maintaining critical investments in future growth.
Our most recent quarterly results showed signs of progress. In Q4 of last year, we delivered revenue, gross margin, and EPS above our guidance. While our performance is nowhere near where I believe it ultimately can and must be, this gives us a lot to build on in 2025 as we continue to drive a disciplined focus on execution and value creation.
A Stronger Intel Products Business
As someone who has followed Intel for a long time, I have seen firsthand that the company has always performed at its best when it delivers amazing products that delight customers. This is the mindset that drives me as a leader. And as I've been meeting with our teams, I've been inspired by the opportunities I see to reinvigorate the Intel Products portfolio.
Roughly 7 in 10 PCs in the world are powered by Intel. We are expanding our leadership position in key segments like AI PCs with our Core Ultra systems.
But it’s not just hardware that makes me optimistic about our client business. It's also the work we are doing with more than 200 independent software vendors across more than 400 features to optimize their software on Intel silicon. This is strengthening our position as the CPU of choice in a valuable growth market. We will further enhance our position in the second half of this year with the launch of Panther Lake, our lead product on Intel 18A, followed by Nova Lake in 2026.
Nearly three-quarters of the world’s primary data center workloads also run on Intel silicon. That said, past strength is not a predictor of future success, and it's clear we need to up our game. It is good to see the new Xeon 6 portfolio starting to close gaps with competition and reassert Intel’s leadership in this important market. We plan to build on this with Clearwater Forest, our first Intel 18A server product, launching in the first half of 2026.
When it comes to the Al hyperscale data center, I see a clear customer need for lower cost, more efficient compute. Intel's leading position as the host CPU for Al servers is a strong foundation that we can build upon, particularly as the market evolves toward on-prem inferencing and edge Al applications. But there's no question we need to strengthen our position in the cloud-based Al data center market by developing competitive rack-scale system solutions, which will be a key priority for me and the team.
A Stronger Intel Foundry
To enable great products, I am equally focused on creating great process technology, which is core to our strategy for building a world-class foundry.
One of the first things I did when I joined the company was to better understand the progress of Intel 18A. It is healthy and will enhance our competitiveness in the market. In addition to Panther Lake, we are in our final design phase with early Intel 18A external customer projects and expect to complete our first release to fab manufacturing in the middle of this year. We also continue to advance our roadmap of future nodes as we rebuild process leadership.
We're doing this while optimizing our capital to align spending with market demand and put Intel Foundry on the path to profitability.
Intel has a vitally important role to play in meeting the growing need for advanced semiconductor production, both in the U.S. and abroad. We are excited to begin high-volume production on Intel 18A at our newest fab in Arizona later this year and look forward to continued work with the U.S. Administration to strengthen the country’s technology and manufacturing leadership. While some companies are returning to the U.S. or investing here for the first time, Intel never left -- and we continue to expand our operations.
A New Intel
I recognize much work is needed to deliver the kind of results you expect with your investment. The entire leadership team and I are committed to improving our performance and positioning the business for future success. We will do so by putting customers at the center of everything we do -- and we are moving ahead with confidence because we have an incredible team of employees that’s up to the challenge.
My pledge to you is that we will continue acting with urgency to strengthen Intel’s competitive position and cultivate a culture of customer-centricity needed to win in our markets. In the process, I’m confident we will deliver a greater return for you, our shareholders.
I am humbled and honored to be Intel’s CEO and appreciate the trust the Board has placed in me to lead our company. Thank you for your investment in Intel.
Sincerely,
Lip-Bu Tan
Dear Stockholder,
When I stepped into my role as CEO of Intel earlier this month, I did so with a pragmatic focus on the business and a profound belief in our company. While there are clear challenges that we need to overcome, there are also significant opportunities to accelerate our turnaround and improve our performance.
Achieving the results I know Intel is capable of starts by refocusing on our customers. This has been priority number one since my first day on the job. I am listening carefully to their feedback so that we continue driving the changes needed to delight our customers and strengthen our competitive position.
Plain and simple, the time for talk is over. We must turn our words into action and deliver on our commitments. I have been pleased to see the leadership team has already started driving the culture change needed to make this happen. As CEO, I will continue to drive this transformation so that we move faster, work smarter and make it easier for customers to win with Intel. Most importantly, I will empower our people to do what they do best -- push the limits of technology and innovate to achieve new breakthroughs.
Actions to Accelerate Progress
Intel’s future success requires an honest assessment of past performance. As I look back on the company’s 2024 results, there is no sugarcoating the fact that we fell short of your expectations. There are many reasons for this, but there are no excuses. I am focused on solutions that will enhance the long-term performance of the company and deliver for you, our shareholders.
The work our team has been doing to deliver on the $10 billion cost action plan we announced last year plays an important role. It has required decisive actions, including a 15% reduction in the size of our workforce last year as we right-size the business for the future. We will remain focused on executing this plan to reduce our operating expenses and capital expenditures, simplify our portfolio, and eliminate organizational complexity -- all while maintaining critical investments in future growth.
Our most recent quarterly results showed signs of progress. In Q4 of last year, we delivered revenue, gross margin, and EPS above our guidance. While our performance is nowhere near where I believe it ultimately can and must be, this gives us a lot to build on in 2025 as we continue to drive a disciplined focus on execution and value creation.
A Stronger Intel Products Business
As someone who has followed Intel for a long time, I have seen firsthand that the company has always performed at its best when it delivers amazing products that delight customers. This is the mindset that drives me as a leader. And as I've been meeting with our teams, I've been inspired by the opportunities I see to reinvigorate the Intel Products portfolio.
Roughly 7 in 10 PCs in the world are powered by Intel. We are expanding our leadership position in key segments like AI PCs with our Core Ultra systems.
But it’s not just hardware that makes me optimistic about our client business. It's also the work we are doing with more than 200 independent software vendors across more than 400 features to optimize their software on Intel silicon. This is strengthening our position as the CPU of choice in a valuable growth market. We will further enhance our position in the second half of this year with the launch of Panther Lake, our lead product on Intel 18A, followed by Nova Lake in 2026.
Nearly three-quarters of the world’s primary data center workloads also run on Intel silicon. That said, past strength is not a predictor of future success, and it's clear we need to up our game. It is good to see the new Xeon 6 portfolio starting to close gaps with competition and reassert Intel’s leadership in this important market. We plan to build on this with Clearwater Forest, our first Intel 18A server product, launching in the first half of 2026.
When it comes to the Al hyperscale data center, I see a clear customer need for lower cost, more efficient compute. Intel's leading position as the host CPU for Al servers is a strong foundation that we can build upon, particularly as the market evolves toward on-prem inferencing and edge Al applications. But there's no question we need to strengthen our position in the cloud-based Al data center market by developing competitive rack-scale system solutions, which will be a key priority for me and the team.
A Stronger Intel Foundry
To enable great products, I am equally focused on creating great process technology, which is core to our strategy for building a world-class foundry.
One of the first things I did when I joined the company was to better understand the progress of Intel 18A. It is healthy and will enhance our competitiveness in the market. In addition to Panther Lake, we are in our final design phase with early Intel 18A external customer projects and expect to complete our first release to fab manufacturing in the middle of this year. We also continue to advance our roadmap of future nodes as we rebuild process leadership.
We're doing this while optimizing our capital to align spending with market demand and put Intel Foundry on the path to profitability.
Intel has a vitally important role to play in meeting the growing need for advanced semiconductor production, both in the U.S. and abroad. We are excited to begin high-volume production on Intel 18A at our newest fab in Arizona later this year and look forward to continued work with the U.S. Administration to strengthen the country’s technology and manufacturing leadership. While some companies are returning to the U.S. or investing here for the first time, Intel never left -- and we continue to expand our operations.
A New Intel
I recognize much work is needed to deliver the kind of results you expect with your investment. The entire leadership team and I are committed to improving our performance and positioning the business for future success. We will do so by putting customers at the center of everything we do -- and we are moving ahead with confidence because we have an incredible team of employees that’s up to the challenge.
My pledge to you is that we will continue acting with urgency to strengthen Intel’s competitive position and cultivate a culture of customer-centricity needed to win in our markets. In the process, I’m confident we will deliver a greater return for you, our shareholders.
I am humbled and honored to be Intel’s CEO and appreciate the trust the Board has placed in me to lead our company. Thank you for your investment in Intel.
Sincerely,
Lip-Bu Tan
