After president Donald Trump called for his head last week, embattled Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan will visit the White House, the Wall Street Journal reports.
At a time when Intel is fighting to return to relevance in the semiconductor space, matters were not helped by calls last week for the resignation of their recently installed CEO – via social media – from the US president. Now the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) is reporting that Lip-Bu Tan will visit the White House today (11 August) to combat what he described last week as “misinformation” circulating on his ties to China.
The report says Tan will explain his professional background and propose ways that Intel and the US government could work together. Sources told the WSJ that Tan will frame Intel’s existing manufacturing capabilities in the US as “a national security issue”.
If we can learn from recent history, it is likely that some kind of proposal that involves dollar signs and further ‘investment’ in US manufacturing might help grab Trump’s attention, but it will not be an easy conversation with Trump allies such as senator Tom Cotton calling out Tan’s background in investing in organisations with ties to the Chinese military.
On 7 August, Tan directly addressed the “misinformation” doing the rounds as regards his previous roles with Walden International and Cadence Design Systems. It appeared in particular to address the public letter sent by Cotton to Intel’s board last week.
“I want to be absolutely clear: over 40-plus 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,” he said in a public letter to all Intel staff. “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.”
Malaysian-born Tan is Chinese-American and a US citizen, but it is his involvement with Cadence Designs, which he led until 2021, and his own tech investments, that seems to be drawing scrutiny from the US administration.
It all comes at a time when Tan has been making major changes at Intel in an effort to get it back on track and competing with the other big chipmakers such as Nvidia and AMD when it comes to AI-enabled chips.
It had previously been thought that Intel would escape the ire of the administration given the extent of its manufacturing in the US, but it would appear that the organisation itself is not the issue but rather this particular leader. This week and today’s visit in particular – if the reports are correct – should signal whether Tan can survive the onslaught from the very top of US politics, and continue to lead Intel into the future.
As a major employer in Ireland – the Leixlip plant seems to have escaped the worst of the current jobs cuts – all eyes will be on developments in the US.
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