Scouting report · INTC
Lip-Bu Tan
Intel CEO since March 2025; ran Cadence 2009-2021; founded Walden in 1987
C+64 / 100
Ranked #19 of 23
Scouting sheet
as of 24 Sep 2026Delivers guidance714 beat · 1 met · 1 missed · 1 withdrawn
Answers the question565 dodges in 15 answers on 2 calls
Capital allocation—company five-year record: destroys — inherited: the five-year record is mostly a predecessor's
Pay design6599% performance-conditioned · revenue, margin, strategic, relative tsr, tsr, time only · 86.9% for · company lost money
Skin in the game55stake worth $151.9m, 2× last year's pay
- Age
- 66src
- In the role
- 2 yr
- Promises scored
- 7
- Hit rate
- 71%
- Dodges / 100 answers
- 33.3
- Airtime on calls
- 31%
Every promise, oldest firstXBBBBWM
What to weigh
Red flag 1
- On 2025-08-07 President Trump publicly called on him to resign, describing him as conflicted over China tiessrc
Watch 11
- Related-party exposure: Intel Capital co-invested alongside Walden and other Tan-affiliated funds in four private companies in 2025-26 (packaging substrate, power ICs, AI, AI infrastructure); the audit committee approved eachsrc
- At Cadence, the proxy disclosed that Cadence customers had committed about 16% of Walden's cumulative capital and that Walden- or Tan-linked companies were under 5% of Cadence's FY2021 revenuesrc
- April 2025 Reuters reporting found he had invested at least $200m in Chinese companies in 2012-2024, personally or via funds, some tied to China's military; Reuters found no current direct stake in companies on the Treasury military-industrial listsrc
- On 2025-08-06 Sen. Tom Cotton wrote to Intel's board chair questioning Tan's ties to Chinasrc
- Tan answered publicly that the reporting about his career was inaccurate and that he had always acted within legal and ethical standards; he stayed in postsrc
- He met Trump at the White House on 2025-08-11, and within days the government was reported to be negotiating an equity stakesrc
- On 2025-08-22 the US government agreed to buy 433.3m shares at $20.47 ($8.9bn), funded mostly by awarded but unpaid CHIPS Act grantssrc
- The 2026 proxy lists the US government as Intel's largest holder, 433.3m shares or 8.4%, plus warrants exercisable if Intel's foundry ownership falls below 51%src
- Cadence pleaded guilty in July 2025 and paid about $140m over exports to China's National University of Defense Technology made in 2015-2021, while he was Cadence CEO; the plea was by the companysrc
- He left Intel's board in August 2024; Reuters, citing sources, reported differences with then-CEO Pat Gelsinger over headcount, culture and AI strategysrc
- 2025 Summary Compensation Table total $93.0m, mostly one-off new-hire equity; CEO pay ratio 812:1 (346:1 on the company's supplemental basis). src
In their favour 3
- Say-on-pay on the 2025 package passed with 86.9% of for-plus-against votes at the May 2026 meetingsrc
- About 99% of 2025 target pay is at risk; new-hire PSUs earn nothing unless the stock rises above the March 2025 VWAP and pay target only at 200% of itsrc
- Took a cut to his 2025 bonus with his agreement, from a formula 123.4% to 118.7%, to match the general employee payoutsrc
Career
Achievements
- Ran Cadence Design Systems as CEO for twelve years (2009-2021), then chaired its board to May 2023src
- Founded venture firm Walden International in 1987 and still chairs it; founding partner of Celesta Capital and Walden Catalystsrc
- 2022 Robert N. Noyce Award, the Semiconductor Industry Association's highest honoursrc
- Bought about $25m of Intel stock from the company on 2025-03-21; his new-hire PSUs vest only if he still holds itsrc
- Negotiated the August 2025 deal under which the US government took a roughly 10% equity stake in Intelsrc
Education
Background
- Family Intel's 8-K on his appointment states no family relationship with any Intel director or executive officersrc
- Family A son sits on the board of a Walden-backed power-management chip company in which Intel Capital invested $3.4m in January 2026 (Item 404 disclosure, Company B)src
- Personal The 2026 proxy lists his birthplace as Malaysiasrc
- Boards Director of Schneider Electric SE since 2018; Credo Technology director 2019-2025; Cadence director 2004-2023src
- Boards Was chairman of Credo Technology's board at his Intel appointment in March 2025src
- Boards Past boards include Hewlett Packard Enterprise (2015-2021), SoftBank Group (2020-2022), SMIC (2001-2018), AMEC China (2005-2020), SINA (1999-2015) and Ambarella (2004-2017)src
- Boards Intel director Sep 2022 - Aug 2024, then returned to the board as CEOsrc
- Boards Chairs the board of an AI-infrastructure start-up (Company D) since November 2017, in which Intel Capital invested $45m in 2025-26src
- Other Advisory board member of UC Berkeley's College of Engineering and its computing and data science divisionsrc
- Other Named to TIME's 100 Most Influential People in 2026 and to Forbes' list of top venture capitalistssrc
The promise ledger
7 scored · 0 open| Result | What was promised | Where it is scored | How |
|---|---|---|---|
| X Missed | Q2 2025 · rev $11.2–12.4bn · non-GAAP EPS $0.00 · non-GAAP GM 36.5% | INTC row 4 | said it, with a colleague |
| B Beat | Q3 2025 · rev $12.6–13.6bn · non-GAAP EPS $0.00 | INTC row 5 | said it, with a colleague |
| B Beat | Q4 2025 · rev $12.8–13.8bn · non-GAAP EPS $0.08 · non-GAAP GM 36.5% | INTC row 6 | said it, with a colleague |
| B Beat | Q1 2026 · rev $11.7–12.7bn · non-GAAP EPS $0.00 · non-GAAP GM 34.5% | INTC row 7 | said it, with a colleague |
| B Beat | Q2 2026 · rev $13.8–14.8bn · non-GAAP EPS $0.20 · non-GAAP GM 39.0% | INTC row 8 | said it, with a colleague |
| W Withdrawn | FY2026 · non-GAAP opex ≈ $16.0bn | INTC row 12 | said it, with a colleague |
| M Met | Panther Lake · "first Panther Lake processor SKU remains on track to begin shipping later this year, with additional SKUs coming in the first half of 2026" | INTC row 14 | written outlook |
Questions dodged
33.3 per 100 answersWhen external foundry commitment becomes concrete, and what it costs. Q1 2026: Ross Seymore asked whether scaling supply means capex must structurally rise and whether that "call[s] into question that you're not going to spend on 14A until you actually get customers" [17]; Lip-Bu Tan answered with management-layer efficiency, yield and cycle-time improvement and the PDK ladder [18] — nothing about the spend ru…
from INTC · dossier-2026-09-24.md
Server CPU share. Q1 2026: Vivek Arya asked whether Intel is gaining share against AMD and how the Arm threat develops [35]; Tan answered with the product roadmap (Granite Rapids → Diamond Rapids → Coral Rapids), multithreading, hiring and the SambaNova partnership [36] — no share figure or direction. Q2 2026: Joe Moore asked the same question over five years and got the same roadmap answer (`dossier-2026-09-2…
from INTC · dossier-2026-09-24.md
External foundry customers. Arya: "when will that confidence be backed by actual customer announcements". Lip-Bu Tan answered with 18A/18AP/14A milestones, PDK dates, SRAM yield and defect density, and said "the engagement, the customer, the feedback have been very positive". No external customer was named and no date was given. The question was about announcements; the answer was about process.
from INTC · dossier-2026-09-23.md
ASIC margins. Rakers asked for "the margin profile of ASICs as they expand". Tan answered TAM; Zinsner answered run rate. Neither addressed margin.
from INTC · dossier-2026-09-23.md
Server share. Moore asked what happens to server share over five years against AMD and Arm. Tan answered roadmap, and recast Arm as "a great partner and customer". No share direction.
from INTC · dossier-2026-09-23.md
Calls reviewed
FY2026-Q1.roic.json— 9 answers, 32% of the wordsFY2026-Q2.roic.json— 6 answers, 29% of the words
Sources
15- Filing Intel Corporation DEF 14A (2026 proxy statement) · 2026-03-23
- Filing Intel Corporation 8-K Item 5.02, appointment of Lip-Bu Tan as CEO (offer letter terms, bio) · 2025-03-14
- Filing Intel Corporation 8-K Exhibit 99.1, press release of 2025-03-12 announcing the CEO appointment · 2025-03-14
- Filing Intel Corporation 8-K Item 5.07, 2026 annual meeting results (say-on-pay 2,795,303,255 for / 422,008,632 against) · 2026-05-15
- Filing Intel Corporation 10-K FY2025 (accession 0000050863-26-000011), XBRL us-gaap NetIncomeLoss, CY2025 frame · 2026-01-23
- Filing Cadence Design Systems DEF 14A (2022 proxy statement), director bio and Walden transactions · 2022-03-22
- Web search result WebSearch: Intel newsroom biography of Lip-Bu Tan (TIME 100 2026, Forbes top VCs) · 2026-09-24
- Web search result WebSearch: DCD, Intel board member Lip-Bu Tan resigns after alleged disagreements (Reuters-sourced), Aug 2024 · 2026-09-24
- Web search result WebSearch: Fortune, Intel's new CEO invested at least $200 million in Chinese businesses (Reuters report), 2025-04-12 · 2026-09-24
- Web search result WebSearch: CNBC/Reuters, US lawmaker questions Intel CEO's ties to China in letter to board chair, 2025-08-06 · 2026-09-24
- Web search result WebSearch: CNN Business, Trump calls on Intel CEO to resign, 2025-08-07 · 2026-09-24
- Web search result WebSearch: Yahoo Finance, Intel CEO responds after Trump calls for resignation, Aug 2025 · 2026-09-24
- Web search result WebSearch: Fortune, days after Intel CEO meets with Trump the government is negotiating a stake, 2025-08-15 · 2026-09-24
- Web search result WebSearch: CNBC, U.S. government takes 10% stake in Intel, 2025-08-22 · 2026-09-24
- Web search result WebSearch: US DOJ press release, Cadence Design Systems agrees to plead guilty and pay over $140 million for unlawful exports, July 2025 · 2026-09-24