Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan breaks his silence after Trump calls for his resignation

Business Insider via MSN ^ | 08/08/2025

[SeekAndFind]

Read the memo:

"My commitment to you and our company"

Dear Team,

I know there has been a lot in the news today, and I want to take a moment to address it directly with you. 

Let me start by saying this: The United States has been my home for more than 40 years. I love this country and am profoundly grateful for the opportunities it has given me. I also love this company. Leading Intel at this critical moment is not just a job — it's a privilege. This industry has given me so much, our company has played such a pivotal role, and it's the honor of my career to work with you all to restore Intel's strength and create the innovations of the future. Intel's success is essential to U.S. technology and manufacturing leadership, national security, and economic strength. This is what fuels our business around the world. It's what motivated me to join this team, and it's what drives me every day to advance the important work we're doing together to build a stronger future.

There has been a lot of misinformation circulating about my past roles at Walden International and Cadence Design Systems. I want to be absolutely clear: Over 40+ years in the industry, I've built relationships around the world and across our diverse ecosystem — and I have always operated within the highest legal and ethical standards. My reputation has been built on trust — on doing what I say I'll do, and doing it the right way. This is the same way I am leading Intel.

We are engaging with the Administration to address the matters that have been raised and ensure they have the facts. I fully share the President's commitment to advancing U.S. national and economic security, I appreciate his leadership to advance these priorities, and I'm proud to lead a company that is so central to these goals.

The Board is fully supportive of the work we are doing to transform our company, innovate for our customers, and execute with discipline — and we are making progress. It's especially exciting to see us ramping toward high-volume manufacturing using the most advanced semiconductor process technology in the country later this year. It will be a major milestone that's a testament to your work and the important role Intel plays in the U.S. technology ecosystem.

Looking ahead, our mission is clear, and our opportunity is enormous. I'm proud to be on this journey with you.

Thank you for everything you're doing to strengthen our company for the future.

Lip-Bu

[Zhang Fei]

His opponents want to end Intel’s role in chip manufacturing, divest. He wants to match, and maybe beat, Taiwan Semiconductor at chip manufacturing. His opponents are, IMHO, being short-sighted. It’s time Intel regained its crown as the king of chip manufacturing. This may be the guy to do it. I’d be more suspicious if he sought to end Intel’s chipmaking operations.

[Bikkuri]

In the past 30 years, I think I remember building one (1) computer with an Intel chip.
Hated everything about it..
Been AMD since the early 90s.

[mbrfl]

A little note to Lip-Bu Tan and the Intel board. You get into a standoff with President Trump at your own risk.

[Zhang Fei]

[A little note to Lip-Bu Tan and the Intel board. You get into a standoff with President Trump at your own risk.]

---

Pat Gelsinger, the previous CEO, was, in my opinion, fired before his efforts had a chance to bear fruit. The issue with Trump’s statement is that the mooted replacement for this guy Tan wants to sell Intel’s manufacturing operation. In fact, Tan was recruited to help sell it, against Gelsinger’s wishes. Turns out Tan *also* wants to keep Intel’s manufacturing, maybe beat Taiwan Semiconductor at its own game.

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/semiconductors/intels-chairman-reportedly-tried-to-broker-a-deal-to-sell-fabs-to-tsmc-ceo-lip-bu-tan-opposed

And why not? Intel’s competitive advantage used to be that it could cram more circuits onto a given chip form factor than anyone else. Then it got sidetracked. Intel separated the chairman and CEO roles in 2020. The,current chairman is a vulture investor who is likely sniping at Tan for the same reason he zapped Gelsinger - their common insistence on keeping Intel’s chip manufacturing. Whether Tan stays is unimportant. What’s key is that the chairman needs to be replaced with a CEO who has both roles, or Intel will be destroyed and end up being sold for peanuts.

[VanShuyten]

“ There has been a lot of misinformation circulating about my past roles at Walden International and Cadence Design Systems. I want to be absolutely clear: Over 40+ years in the industry, I’ve built relationships around the world and across our diverse ecosystem — and I have always operated within the highest legal and ethical standards. My reputation has been built on trust — on doing what I say I’ll do, and doing it the right way. This is the same way I am leading Intel.”

He never really comes out to say he’s a loyal American and not a Chicom asset.

[PGR88]

He’s not going to beat Trump

He should have just negotiated the best and most profitable exit possible.

[Zhang Fei]

[He never really comes out to say he’s a loyal American and not a Chicom asset.]

---

Since he apparently was never a Chinese citizen, that may be superfluous.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lip-Bu_Tan

[Zhang Fei]

[He’s not going to beat Trump

He should have just negotiated the best and most profitable exit possible.]

---

He doesn’t have to beat Trump, just the vulture investor Intel chairman who wants to sell its chipmaking assets to Taiwan Semiconductor.

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/semiconductors/intels-chairman-reportedly-tried-to-broker-a-deal-to-sell-fabs-to-tsmc-ceo-lip-bu-tan-opposed

Odds are the chairman is a much harder opponent than Trump, since he also fired Pat Gelsinger, the previous CEO, for opposing a sale. If Intel is to remain a major semiconductor firm, its chairman needs to be replaced and the role given back to the CEO, whether it’s Tan or Gelsinger. Separating the two roles since 2020 has been a disaster for Intel.

[DesertRhino]

So this is some filthy backroom deal where a Chairman is trying to force out the CEO, to coerce Intel into selling to the Taiwan manufacturer? And he got to Tom Cotton to sell it to Trump?

That’s just straight up corrupt if that is the case.

[Zhang Fei]

[In the past 30 years, I think I remember building one (1) computer with an Intel chip.
Hated everything about it..
Been AMD since the early 90s.]

---

Same here. But I think of Intel as being like Curtiss-Wright, a venerable name that ought to be salvaged, not destroyed at the hands of its vulture investor chairman, who is trying to sell it off in pieces.

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/semiconductors/intels-chairman-reportedly-tried-to-broker-a-deal-to-sell-fabs-to-tsmc-ceo-lip-bu-tan-opposed

Odds are non-zero that this is part of the vulture investor’s chairman’s effort to break the company up and sell it in pieces. If Tan is ousted, the chairman ought to go with him, and Pat Gelsinger, the ex-CEO who opposed the divestment, should be brought back.

[Zhang Fei]

[So this is some filthy backroom deal where a Chairman is trying to force out the CEO, to coerce Intel into selling to the Taiwan manufacturer? And he got to Tom Cotton to sell it to Trump?

That’s just straight up corrupt if that is the case.]

---

That’s the way it appears. This vulture investor chairman has a singular obsession with divesting Intel’s chipmaking operations. Intel’s dirty little secret is that it reigned supreme when it was #1 in chip manufacturing. Its designs weren’t bad, but its real edge was getting more circuits on a chip than AMD because it was the world leader in chip manufacturing. Like the previous CEO Gelsinger, Tan likely understands Intel can’t get its mojo back without catching up to Taiwan Semiconductor in chipmaking.

Perhaps Tan lied about his intentions re divestment to get the job months after Gelsinger was fired, then proceeded to get the rest of the board on his side, meaning the chairman might be on the outside looking in. If the board supports the CEO, the chairman can be ousted, and both roles reunified. Whether Tan or Gelsinger is CEO, the vulture investor/bean counter chairman needs to go.

[minnesota_bound]

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan is a commie stooge. He should never have been in charge. He is compromised like Mitch McConnell.

[Zhang Fei]

[So this is some filthy backroom deal where a Chairman is trying to force out the CEO, to coerce Intel into selling to the Taiwan manufacturer? And he got to Tom Cotton to sell it to Trump?

That’s just straight up corrupt if that is the case.]

---

It would hilarious if Tan proposed a Solomonic resolution to the board - that both he and the chairman resign, and Pat Gelsinger, that divestment-opposing ex-CEO, be brought back as chairman *and* CEO. I do understand why anyone would be hesitant to quit, though. Intel is an iconic company in much the same way as IBM. To bring Intel back from the ER is the role of a lifetime. To fight tooth and nail to stay on is the natural response.

[af_vet_1981]

I love this country and am profoundly grateful for the opportunities it has given me. I also love this company.

The real question is "Does he have questionable loyalty or ties to a country that is not an ally of the United States, but an adversary ?"

He has a position of trust and if he cannot be trusted then he has to be removed from that position of trust. The stakes are too high.

[jcon40]

I prefer chocolate chips

[Liz]

Lip-Bu Tan’s family, including his siblings.................
Lip-Bu Tan is the youngest of five siblings. He has three older sisters and one older brother.

His older brother is a Rhodes Scholar and a medical engineering PhD, and later became a heart specialist in the UK.

One of his older sisters is a marine biologist.

Another older sister holds a PhD from Harvard and is a professor at Harvard University.

His third older sister specializes in linguistics and is said to be able to speak 16 different languages.

[Liz]

Two more Chinese figures in the semiconductor industry are related: Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, and Lisa Su, the CEO of AMD.

More precisely, Lisa Su is Jensen Huang’s first cousin, once removed, meaning Huang’s mother is Su’s grandfather’s sister.

This familial connection is particularly noteworthy because Nvidia and AMD are direct competitors in the chip industry, especially in the areas of GPUs and AI accelerators.

While they are related, they did not grow up together and only became aware of their familial connection later in their careers.

[Rocco DiPippo]

Sum Tim Wong.