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Ouch. As he tries to engineer a turnaround, Intel’s new CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly told employees he doesn’t consider the company a top chipmaker.
According to OregonLive, Tan made the remarks in a video broadcasted to Intel employees across the globe. “Twenty, 30 years ago, we are really the leader,” he said. “Now I think the world has changed. We are not in the top 10 semiconductor companies.”
The sentiment won’t raise anyone’s confidence at the beleaguered chipmaker, which is facing a new round of layoffs in an attempt to cut costs and streamline operations. Tan made the statement as rival companies in AMD, Apple, Nvidia and Qualcomm have been producing cutting-edge PC processors and GPUs with the help of Taiwan’s TSMC, now considered the top dog in semiconductor manufacturing.
However, a spokesperson for Intel said Tan's remarks need context. "We wanted to flag that the 'not in the top 10' comment referred specifically to Intel’s market cap, not a broader statement about Intel’s standing in the industry. We would appreciate if you could include that the comment is specifically referring to market cap in your story and headline for clarity’s sake. Without that detail, it is misleading."
For perspective, Intel has an estimated market cap at $103 billion, ranking it 16th among semiconductor companies. Nvidia, on the other hand, broke the $4 trillion threshold yesterday and ranks number one.
TSMC’s continued rise has also chipped away at Intel’s dominance in the PC and server markets — long its stronghold. Tan himself acknowledged that Intel is not only facing an uphill battle, but might have no choice but to bail from the enterprise AI market, which Nvidia has been dominating.
“On training I think it is too late for us,” Tan said, according to OregonLive. He noted Nvidia’s position has become “too strong” when companies including Meta, xAI and OpenAI have been buying hundreds of thousands of enterprise GPUs from Nvidia.
Tan expressed the blunt views amid signs Intel’s upcoming chip manufacturing tech, Intel 18A, might face a weaker than expected reception from customers. Reuters reported last week that Tan is concerned Intel’s customers won’t adopt Intel 18A, even though the chip manufacturing node is designed to be competitive with TSMC’s own solutions.
During his video remarks, Tan would only say: “Our number one priority is to make sure that our 18A is robust for our internal customer.” The second priority is to then shift to Intel’s next-generation 14A process, likely for 2027. Tan also told employees he wants Intel to remain focused on bringing AI capabilities to PCs.