In pre-market activity, Intel stock increased 10%, as Wall Street named former board member Lip-Bu Tan as CEO of Intel. Tan left Wall Street over differences about the chipmaker’s direction after several years of underperformance in the stock market. This news article from The CEO Views intends to shed light on this recent surge in Intel’s investment shares after the announcement of Tan joining the chip-making company.
Scenario Before Tan
Intel experienced several market share losses in data centers and PCs. It also lost billions of dollars in the manufacturing business. Over the last five years, the stock has lost about 60% of its actual value, a period in which the Nasdaq Composite index and S&P 500 have more than doubled.
Tan As a Beacon of Hope
Tan will be endowed with the task of reviving the company’s fortunes after it missed out on the semiconductor boon driven by artificial intelligence while investing billions of dollars into flourishing its chip-making business.
Analyst TD Cowen sounded hopeful while talking about Tan’s return to Intel, “Tan in as CEO at Intel was as good as stakeholders could have hoped for.” In Cowen’s words, Tan has deep relationships across the Intel ecosystem, drawing customers into the company’s manufacturing business. As per the report, Tan will helm Intel three months after the termination of its previous CEO, Pat Gelsinger.
Tan was made a board member two years after he became the CEO to help the company turn the picture of its investment shares in the stock market. However, he left the board due to some disagreements over the company’s and its workforce’s size and culture.
Expectations from Tan
As skepticism concerning Intel stock and its future intensified in recent times, cases of competitors evaluating its chip designs and marketing have surfaced. Reports were that TSMC has also separately studied controlling some or all of its plants.
In such a scenario, Tan is expected to follow Gelsinger to keep the chip design and manufacturing operations together. As Tan vows to make Intel the top-performing company or a top foundry, he hinted at this plan in a letter to his employees.
Tan oversaw the strong growth at Intel supplier and chip design software Cadence Design Systems for more than a decade and also sees the potential of the system to overcome some major challenges of Intel as a “neutral party.”
Stacy Rasgon of Bernstein has pointed out that Tan’s two-years tenure on the Intel board would aid his efforts while working as the CEO of the company. Rasgon said, “should have given him a pretty good idea of where all the bodies are buried, and he should be much more realistic in his evaluations and outlook than prior leadership (it was unbridled optimism proved to be Pat’s undoing).”
(Source: LSEG, 2025)
With the tumultuous Intel stock in the last two years, the stock market position of the company has been disastrous until Tan happened. Intel’s investment shares remained stuck below the value of $100 billion for the first time in three decades after a slumped share of 60% last year, missing salres targets for Gaudi AI chips as well.
As the LSEG data shows, investors sell the Intel stock rather than buy it, with most holding a rating. In the words of Rasgon, he “has a big job in front of him and a lot of wood to chop, though it does seem increasingly likely something will have to change, giving investors something more concrete to play for (and if he fails, it was probably unfixable).”
Energized Stock
The announcement of the appointment of Tan, a former Intel board member and previously the CEO of Cadence Design Systems, has energized the stock, heading for a four-day winning streak. Tan’s plans include cutting back on middle management, improving the chip-manufacturing performance, and introducing new semiconductors to power servers driven by AI.
After the loss of $13.4 billion last year, Intel’s chip-manufacturing business needs to improve. Rather than spinning off the chip-manufacturing operations, Tan intends to maintain the company in its current form. This decision is taken despite the reports of a potential deal with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing.
Past Plans with Great Potentials
Last year, Intel declared cutting 15,000 jobs, reducing employee count by over 15%. This might make more cuts difficult to perform, but Tan believed as a board member that the company had a bloated workforce during his time from 2022 to 2024.
As per the Reuters report, Intel might have new architecture ready for an AI chip by 2017. This is with the hope of subsequently releasing new versions every year. Intel has barely found making a dent in the AI hardware market, unlike its competitors like Nvidia, Broadcom, and others.
Such strategic planning holds great potential for Intel stock to skyrocket in the stock market. With Tan becoming the CEO of Intel, investors are likely to buy investment shares with Intel in the near future.
