- calendar_today August 31, 2025
Trump posted on his Truth Social account on Thursday, writing: “The CEO of INTEL is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately. There is no other solution to this problem.”
AFTER years of success making the world’s most advanced computer chips, Intel is in a state of disarray. Recent attempts to turn the company around have been characterised by brutal cost-cutting and political controversy. Its new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, will have to clear a path through thickets of thorns.
Tan is a well-regarded Silicon Valley executive who has built a global semiconductor and venture capital empire over the past three decades. His San Francisco-based investment firm, as well as two companies registered in Hong Kong, have invested more than $2 billion in Chinese tech over the years. Tan is also a former board member of China’s largest chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC).
Tan’s business record has drawn extra scrutiny due to another part of his career. He was the chief executive of Cadence Design Systems, a California-based company that makes software for chip design, before being appointed Intel CEO. Cadence admitted last week that it had violated American export controls after selling its chip design software to a Chinese university with close military links.
Tan’s appointment was confirmed by Intel’s board after its previous chief executive, Pat Gelsinger, was unceremoniously fired in December. The company is yet to appoint a new chair, which has traditionally been held by Gelsinger’s predecessors.
Intel’s appointment of Tan is especially important given its status as the only US-headquartered company able to make the most advanced chips. The California tech giant has, however, been slow to catch up to new trends. Intel has so far missed out on the latest boom: artificial-intelligence chips, which are taking centre stage in the global chip race.
Intel’s last two CEOs have already been forced to step down early, leaving the company to search for a leader who can revive its fortunes. Intel has also won billions of dollars in government subsidies and loans, becoming one of the largest recipients of taxpayer dollars in a nationwide campaign to reinvigorate US chipmaking. Intel’s chipmaking rivals in Taiwan and South Korea are nervous about the subsidies, which they fear will distort competition. For Tan, who has promised to slash costs and restructure Intel, pressure is on from the start.
In July, Tan warned that Intel would not be able to continue investing in its leading-edge chip manufacturing technology without a “significant external customer” buying into it. Intel’s making a large-scale retreat from the development of its next-generation chipmaking process would hand the market to TSMC, whose fabless customers, such as Nvidia and AMD, are the industry leaders. It would also put Intel in a position where its most advanced manufacturing processes are significantly behind TSMC’s, putting the entire supply chain, as well as national security, at risk.
Tan’s ability to turn around Intel’s fortunes has been put under further scrutiny after he revealed in July that the company would have to slash $10 billion in costs to improve its profitability. Intel’s announcement came as Trump weighed his own demand for Tan to resign, as the former president regularly made technology and trade with China central planks of his post-presidential political life.
Tan took over as Intel’s CEO in March, at a time when the company had just dismissed its previous chief executive, Pat Gelsinger, last December. Tan’s appointment is a significant development for Intel as the chipmaker finds itself at a crossroads: struggling to keep up with its arch-rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).
Intel’s fate is a matter of national concern as the Santa Clara, California-based chipmaker is the only US-headquartered company that is able to make the world’s most advanced semiconductors. The company, however, has been losing out to TSMC in key market trends such as artificial intelligence, the latest battleground of the global chip war.
Intel has so far been able to claw back some of its losses after winning billions of dollars in government subsidies and loans to support its US operations. The taxpayer-funded largesse has made Intel one of the biggest beneficiaries of Washington’s latest industrial policy push to revive domestic semiconductor manufacturing. Intel’s American chipmaking rivals in Taiwan and South Korea have not been happy about the subsidies and fear that they will be left behind. Tan, who has laid out a cost-cutting and restructuring agenda for Intel, will need to move quickly to make good on the board’s vote of confidence.
Tan has made clear where Intel stands in his first month as CEO. In July, he told shareholders that Intel would have to stop making its next-generation manufacturing technology unless it found a “significant external customer” to support it. This is the kind of tough talk investors want to hear, as Intel has become notorious for its delays and overruns with cutting-edge manufacturing technology. But for Tan, this warning from his first investor letter since being appointed CEO will put the future of Intel’s most advanced chipmaking at risk.
Intel has fired its chief executive just two years after he was given the job and is now left searching for a replacement to lead the company into the next era of its semiconductor business. Intel’s recent woes are a timely reminder that the US is playing catch-up with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world’s largest chipmaker, in the race to build the most advanced semiconductors.
