Intel has begun its search for potential candidates for CEO after its former head Pat Gelsinger abruptly retired from the role. This time round, the chipmaker is reportedly looking outside the company, with potential hires including the Malaysian-born Lip-Bu Tan.
While born in Johor, Tan grew up in Singapore and then later moved to the US, where he served as a member of the board at Intel from 2022 till 2024, when he stepped down. As of this publication, the content of the discussions are confidential and ongoing.
Intel has also reached out to Matt Murphy, CEO of Marvell Technology, a company that produces semiconductor chips. However, when asked about if the chipmaker approached them, Murphy simply said that he is “100% focused on Marvell”.
For the uninitiated, Intel made a surprise and sudden announcement that Gelsinger was stepping down from his role as CEO at the company, effective immediately. In addition, Gelsinger also gave up his seat on the board of directors.
While unconfirmed, it is widely believed at this point that the reason behind Intel’s snapshot decision was that Gelsinger’s plan to turn the company’s fortune around wasn’t quick enough, and the company is desperate to get back into the black.
It also doesn’t help that Gelsinger’s tenure as Intel CEO was flooded with issues coming from multiple angles. One major issue was his decision to have the company keep its own fabs, or chip factories, which is a costly affair. Then there’s the US$8.5 billion the US government through the Chips and Science Act, which still hasn’t been paid to the chipmaker.
And then there are the instability and degradation issues with Intel’s 13th and 14th generation Core i9 desktop CPUs. The issue has been resolved and while Intel assured gamers that the problems would not affect future desktop CPUs, the damage had already been done.
(Source: Reuters)
