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Ex-Intel CEO says Taiwan energy concerns warrant U.S. pivot

Daniel Nenni

Daniel Nenni

Admin
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1763529030811.png

Former Intel Corp. boss Pat Gelsinger. CNA photo Nov. 18, 2025

Taipei, Nov. 18 (CNA) Visiting former Intel Corp. boss Pat Gelsinger said Tuesday that concerns over Taiwan's strained energy supply justify efforts to shift more semiconductor production to the United States, despite the island's manufacturing strengths.

At a news conference in Taipei, Gelsinger said Taiwan was "not in the position to have a resilient energy supply chain," a weakness he warned puts the island's chip industry "in a very precarious state."

Gelsinger said that strengthening supply-chain resilience, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s (TSMC) investment in the United States, will benefit the global semiconductor ecosystem.

"More of the growth should occur in other geographies," Gelsinger said. "I encourage them to have more advanced nodes and R&D in the U.S."

Despite these challenges, Gelsinger said that Taiwan's manufacturing advantages mean it should not be discouraged by potential U.S. tariffs. "There's no place like Taiwan, [where] you can have an idea at breakfast, you can have a prototype by lunch, and you can have manufacturing by dinner."

Gelsinger spoke at an event announcing partnerships between his current employer, the California-based venture capital firm Playground Global, and seven companies.

Among the seven, Ayar Labs unveiled a strategic partnership with Taiwan's application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) provider Global Unichip Corp. (GUC) to integrate co-packaged optics (CPO) into GUC's advanced ASIC design services.

Meanwhile, d-Matrix announced collaborations with TSMC, Alchip Technologies and packaging-and-testing giant ASE to jointly develop 3D memory-stacking solutions to accelerate AI development.

focustaiwan.tw

Ex-Intel CEO says Taiwan energy concerns warrant U.S. pivot - Focus Taiwan

Visiting former Intel Corp. boss Pat Gelsinger said Tuesday that concerns over Taiwan's strained energy supply justify efforts to shift more semiconductor production to the United States, despite the island's manufacturing strengths.
focustaiwan.tw focustaiwan.tw
 
I heard this argument 20 years ago. That and typhoons, earthquakes, invasions, etc... The good news is that Pat G is still shooting from the hip. The bad news is that his aim has not improved. I strongly discourage technology leaders from disparaging entire countries. Especially critical supply chain countries like Taiwan.
 
Understanding the whole picture is important and this is why TSM is the leader and Intel an also ran. I hope Intel can turn around with a great management team, but it has not happened yet.
 
I can't believe he spewed this nonsense *in Taiwan*. 🤮

I also can't believe that after multiple decades of poor strategy and decision-making anyone still listens to him. (The only exception that comes to mind is his cloud computing support at VMWare, a decision so obvious our cat could have made it.)
 
blueone said:
I can't believe he spewed this nonsense *in Taiwan*. 🤮

I also can't believe that after multiple decades of poor strategy and decision-making anyone still listens to him. (The only exception that comes to mind is his cloud computing support at VMWare, a decision so obvious our cat could have made it.)
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If I was a Taiwan official, I would have said "not everyone can lower market cap of their company by 60% when everyone elses tripled.... Only Pat has ever achieved that result"

Pat....PLEASE go back to telling apocryphal stories about your time at Intel .... "I invented the number 86 ".

Those of us who worked there know what really happened in your career but you seem like a nice guy so we will let it slide.
 
MKWVentures said:
If I was a Taiwan official, I would have said "not everyone can lower market cap of their company by 60% when everyone elses tripled.... Only Pat has ever achieved that result"

Pat....PLEASE go back to telling apocryphal stories about your time at Intel .... "I invented the number 86 ".

Those of us who worked there know what really happened in your career but you seem like a nice guy so we will let it slide.
Click to expand...
Now i am curious about what happened
 
blueone said:
Just imagine how much better off Pat would be if he had stayed at VMware rather than moving to Intel in 2021. 🙄
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If Bob Swan had stayed CEO, Intel would be fabless today and there would not be any logic semiconductor technology development in Oregon because he would have shut things down and doubled down on outsourcing to foundries. That might have been the right decision for stockholders but would have been unfortunate for Oregon.
 
However, Taiwan may not be able to increase the number of fabs any further due to location, water resources, and of course, electricity issues. I'm not saying anything strange.
 
I certainly understand what you're trying to say, but aren't you hitting the pat button a little too hard?
You're hitting Gelsinger too hard.
 
osnium said:
If Bob Swan had stayed CEO, Intel would be fabless today and there would not be any logic semiconductor technology development in Oregon because he would have shut things down and doubled down on outsourcing to foundries. That might have been the right decision for stockholders but would have been unfortunate for Oregon.
Click to expand...
I was only discussing what would have been good for Pat, not that Intel should have stuck with Swan. There were certainly better candidates.
 
I'll take the flames I guess - Taiwan *is* extremely dependant upon others for energy:

According to EIA.GOV -- Total energy import dependence was about 98%, according to the Taiwanese government.

International - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

www.eia.gov www.eia.gov

Wikipedia breaks down Taiwan's energy generation as follows: (83.2% fossil fuel) - 42.4% natural gas, 39.3% coal, 4.2% from nuclear, 11.6% from renewables, and 1.1% from pumped-storage.

The article also points out some other opportunities for Taiwan's energy supply:
- "As of 2017, the safety stock of LNG imported to Taiwan is seven days"
- Taiwan's last active nuclear reactor was shutdown in 2024 after 40 years of service, though the government is extending it's license

However, the government does seem aware of the risk and is taking (tentative?) steps to address:
- Carbon neutral goal by 2050 (i.e. they'll need renewables - which are usually "close" to consumers)
- Goals for energy efficiency (= reduce overall consumption)
- Putting money into renewables immediately

1763644954252.png
-

(Of course Pat's comments about Taiwan not being a place for "quickly executing ideas" is .. weird)
 
Xebec said:
(Of course Pat's comments about Taiwan not being a place for "quickly executing ideas" is .. weird)
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I'm not following you on this point. The quote from Pat was:

"There's no place like Taiwan, [where] you can have an idea at breakfast, you can have a prototype by lunch, and you can have manufacturing by dinner."
Click to expand...

If anything, Pat seemed to be exaggerating Taiwan's capabilities to make a positive point.
 
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