Key Takeaways
- Lip-Bu Tan has been appointed as Intel's CEO, marking the 9th appointment in 56 years and is viewed positively by employees and the industry.
- Tan is highly qualified with a strong educational background, including degrees in physics, nuclear engineering, and an MBA, along with significant leadership experience.
- Despite challenges facing Intel, Lip-Bu Tan's compensation package reflects a long-term vision, including $25 million in stock purchases, indicating he is focused on establishing a lasting legacy.
Great news last week as Intel fills the CEO slot for the 9th time in 56 years with industry legend Lip-Bu Tan. From what I hear, Intel employees, and the entire industry for that matter, are overjoyed. I’m sure there are one or two competing companies that are concerned but overall it is an absolute love fest.
If you look at education alone Lip-Bu is definitely worthy of the CEO title. When you look at his experience, however, I would say he is a bit over qualified.
Robert N. Noyce
Intel CEO, 1968-1975, Co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor
Education: Ph.D in physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Gordon E. Moore
Intel CEO, 1975-1987, Co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor
Education: Ph.D in chemistry and physics, California Institute of Technology
Andrew S. Grove
Intel CEO, 1987-1998, previously worked at Fairchild Semiconductor
Education: Ph.D. in chemical engineering, University of California-Berkeley
Craig R. Barrett
Intel CEO, 1998-2005
Education: Ph.D. in materials science, Stanford University
Paul S. Otellini
Intel CEO, 2005-2013
Education: MBA, University of California-Berkeley, 1974; B.A. in economics, University of San Francisco, 1972
Brian M. Krzanich
Intel CEO 2013-2018
Education: BA in Chemistry from San Jose State University
Robert Swan
Intel CEO January 2019-2021
Education: Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Buffalo, MBA from Binghamton University.
Pat Gelsinger
Intel CEO 2021-2024
Education: Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Santa Clara University, Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.
Lip-Bu Tan
Intel CEO 2025-Present
Education: Bachelor of Science in Physics from Nanyang University in Singapore, a Master of Science in Nuclear Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and an MBA from the University of San Francisco.
Founding Managing Partner of Walden Catalyst Ventures and a Founding Managing Partner of Celesta Capital. Received the Semiconductor Industry Association 2022 Robert N. Noyce Award and Global Semiconductor Alliance 2016 Dr. Morris Chang’s Exemplary Leadership Award. Walden Catalyst Ventures boasts $5B of committed capital over the last thirty years, 600 portfolio companies in 12 countries, and 120 IPOs on fifteen exchanges around the world.
Semiconductor insiders like myself first met Lip-Bu when he joined Cadence Design Systems in 2004 as a member of the Board of Directors. In fact, I knew Cadence even before they were Cadence. EDA legend Jim Solomon merged companies to create Cadence and served as CEO from 1988-1989 before appointing Joe Costello. Joe was CEO from 1989-1997 and made Cadence and EDA in general what it is today, a force of nature in the semiconductor industry. Jack Harding, Ray Bingham, and Mike Fister were CEOs before Lip-Bu took over in 2009 ($853 million in revenue) and resigned in 2021 ($2.99 billion in revenue). Cadence experienced some difficult times after Joe Costello left but Lip-Bu brought Cadence back to a leadership position in EDA, absolutely.
In case you are interested there is an EDA/IP Mergers and Acquisitions Wiki which has been viewed millions of times. EDA in itself is a result of hundreds of mergers and acquisitions.
In addition to working with Intel while at Cadence, Lip-Bu joined the Intel board in 2022 and resigned in August of 2024, Pat Gelsinger resigned on December 1st 2024, probably not a coincidence. Hopefully you understand my “overqualified” comment now?
Bottom line: Lip-Bu Tan knows Intel better and is more qualified than any of the other CEO candidates that have been mentioned in the press by a very wide margin.
The question some may have now is: Why did an overly successful person like Lip-Bu Tan risk his golden reputation and accept the CEO position at a struggling semiconductor legend like Intel?
First let’s look at his compensation:
- Base Salary: $1 million per year.
- Annual Cash Bonus: Eligible for up to $2 million, based on performance metrics.
- Long-Term Equity Awards: Approximately $66 million in stock options and grants, vesting over a multi-year period.
- Stock Purchase: Agreed to purchase $25 million worth of Intel shares within the first 30 days of his tenure.
Given that Lip-Bu is a billionaire I would argue that it is not about the money. In the short term his compensation package is less than Pat Gelsinger’s. Pat had a salary of $1.25M and cash bonuses of up to $3.4M annually. Long term, however, Lip-Bu seems to have the stock advantage if successful and I can assure you the $25M stock purchase was Lip-Bu’s idea. He did the same when he joined Cadence. This clearly tells me that this is not a short term mission for Lip-Bu Tan. There is also a clause where Lip-Bu can continue his work with Walden which is an important point. He had the same agreement with Cadence.
I think it is obvious but this is my opinion based on my 40+ years in the semiconductor industry. Lip-Bu Tan is all about establishing his legacy as one of the all-time greatest semiconductor CEO’s. I seriously doubt he would risk his hard earned reputation if he did not see a clear path of success for Intel.
And for you analysts and media who think Lip-Bu only has one year to accomplish this, or are underestimating Lip-Bu’s ability as a CEO: stop embarrassing yourself. And for those of you who are calling Lip-Bu Tan LBT please stop. It sounds like a sandwich.
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