SAN FRANCISCO: Tan Lip-Bu could also be probably the most highly effective expertise executives you’ve got by no means heard of.
As he steps into one of many highest-profile jobs on the planet – CEO of troubled, storied chipmaker Intel – his efficiency might be on full show.
Tan, named Intel CEO on Wednesday (Mar 12), faces an infinite problem in turning across the operations of an organization that put the “silicon” in Silicon Valley.
Whereas little recognized to the general public, his benefit is that nearly each one among Intel’s former and potential prospects is aware of him and has performed enterprise with him, both shopping for one of many many startups he backed or utilizing software program from an organization he ran.
Tan rubs shoulders with the likes of Lisa Su from Superior Micro Units and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, two AI chip leaders who, in response to Reuters stories, had been pitched to spend money on Intel.
His efforts are additionally prone to be intently watched by US President Donald Trump, who is keen for Intel to rebound.
Tan “can leverage his expertise and particularly his business connections, whereas additionally pursuing excellence inside Intel”, mentioned unbiased analyst Jack Gold. “Hopefully the board will keep out of his approach as he makes wanted adjustments.”
To proper the semiconductor business’s greatest ship, Tan, 65, might use underdog methods that helped him flip round smaller corporations that later grew to become huge.
EARLY START
Born in Malaysia, raised in Singapore and now a naturalised American citizen, Tan studied physics at Nanyang Technological College in Singapore.
He later went to the US for his youth of superior training, learning nuclear engineering on the Massachusetts Institute of Know-how.
He then moved to California for enterprise college and based enterprise capital agency Walden Worldwide in 1987. That agency, named for the pond the place author Henry David Thoreau sought an unconventional life, made unconventional bets.
Walden Worldwide is reported to have managed cumulative capital commitments of $2.8 billion.
INVOLVEMENT WITH STARTUPS
Tan targeted on semiconductors, cloud infrastructure, information administration and safety, in addition to synthetic intelligence.
He believed that comparatively small groups of startup engineers with good chip design concepts may efficiently compete towards incumbent chip giants, and he poured cash into tons of of startups.
For instance, he took a stake in Annapurna Labs, a startup later bought by Amazon.com for US$370 million that has turn into the guts of its in-house chip division. Amazon says it now deploys extra of its personal central processors than it does these from Intel.
He additionally invested in Nuvia, which Qualcomm purchased for US$1.4 billion in 2021, making it a central a part of its push to compete with Intel within the laptop computer and PC chip markets.
Tan stays actively concerned with startups that would both turn into opponents or acquisition targets for Intel.
Earlier this week, for example, he invested in AI photonic startup Celestial AI, which is backed by Intel rival Superior Micro Units.
