Former Intel board maker left chipmaker over concerns about revival: report
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- Lip-Bu Tan, who left Intel’s (NASDAQ:INTC) board of directors earlier this month, departed the semiconductor giant over concerns about the company’s plan to turn itself around, Reuters reported.
- Tan, who previously was the Chief Executive Officer of Cadence Design Systems (CDNS) and joined Intel’s board two years ago, expressed his displeasure with Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger and other board members over the size of the company’s workforce, its risk-averse culture and its strategy for artificial intelligence, which he considered lagging, the news outlet added, citing three sources familiar with the matter. He had angst that Intel is overrun with middle managers who impacted progress in its server and desktop chips divisions, and wanted those people let go.
- Some teams at Intel have five times the number of employees working on projects that competitors like AMD (AMD) have, the news outlet added, citing two of the sources.
- In a filing earlier this month, Intel said Tan’s decision to leave was “a result of demands on his time.”
- “I am grateful for the opportunity to serve on the Intel Board of Directors,” Tan said in the filing. “This is a personal decision based on a need to reprioritize various commitments, and I remain supportive of the company and its important work.”
- Intel announced earlier this month that it was cutting 15% of its roughly 125,000 strong-workforce and suspended its dividend in an effort to cut spending and streamline the company. One former executive at the company told Reuters the layoffs should have come years ago and been greater in scale.
- By comparison, Nvidia (NVDA) has roughly 30,000 employees, AMD has approximately 39,000 employees and Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) has approximately 77,000 employees. Intel is attempting to transition to create chips for other companies and compete with Taiwan Semi.
- Intel has not yet responded to a request for comment from Seeking Alpha.