Analyst(s): Olivier Blanchard
Publication Date: April 10, 2025
Intel’s new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, has introduced a sweeping recovery plan for the company that indexes engineering excellence, custom silicon, and a reinvigorated foundry model. Addressing customers directly at Intel Vision 2025, Tan acknowledged the company’s setbacks and pledged to rebuild trust through execution and cultural transformation.
What is Covered in this Article:
- Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan’s engineering-led turnaround plan introduced at Intel Vision 2025
- Focus on rebuilding engineering culture and accelerating custom silicon innovation
- Shift to software-first, AI-centric design and platform thinking
- Progress on Intel Foundry strategy, with 18A node targeted for H2 FY 2025
- Assessment of execution risks and competitive pressures from peers like TSMC and AMD
The News: Intel’s new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, presented his strategic roadmap during the Intel Vision 2025 conference in Las Vegas, calling for a reset in company culture, tighter customer engagement, and a software-first approach to hardware design. Tan highlighted engineering excellence and a startup-like mindset as critical pillars of Intel’s future. He also reaffirmed Intel’s commitment to its foundry ambitions and confirmed that the 18A process node remains on schedule for high-volume production in H2 FY 2025.
Can Lip-Bu Tan’s Engineering-First Vision Get Intel Back on Track?
Analyst Take: Lip-Bu Tan’s keynote was as much a reset in tone as it was a statement of purpose. With just 14 days into the role, Tan leaned into transparency, customer feedback, and a back-to-basics ethos. His remarks offered little in terms of short-term tactical actions but laid out a clear direction anchored in technical innovation, cultural change, and strategic clarity. Given recent months of uncertainty about Intel’s future and what seemed like a lack of clear direction for the company, it was important that Tan’s delivery, as much as the substance of his keynote, hit all the right notes.
Tan’s objective at Vision 2025 wasn’t so much to outline a detailed plan just yet but to frame an outline for both the problems and the solutions he and his team would be working on and, most importantly, to establish a foundation of confidence – a starting point – for the next phase of Intel’s journey.
Both Tan’s candor and confidence about what is to come next and how, seemed to do the trick. And while Intel still has a lot of work to do to catch up to where it should be, I feel a lot more confident about Intel’s prospects moving forward than I did before Tan took the stage. In short: mission accomplished, at least for now.
Rebuilding Intel Through Engineering and Cultural Renewal
Tan made it clear that Intel’s future rests on re-establishing its engineering credentials. He committed to recruiting and retaining top technical talent, pointing to a less-than-optimal focus on building and retaining its talent pool in recent years as one of the company’s points of failure. He also stressed his personal engagement with engineers and architects and called for the creation of “startup day one” energy to revive internal innovation. Easier said than done, but that is the correct approach if Intel is to become an exciting, relevant hotbed of innovation again – especially the kind that will legitimately attract and retain top engineering and creative talent.
This isn’t a mere abstraction, nor is Tan giving lip service to industry clichés. Drawing from his success at Cadence Design, Tan recalled how organic product development and shifting from vendor to partner mindset led to a 3x market expansion and a 3,200% shareholder return. His goal is to replicate that formula at Intel, starting with a cultural overhaul that will drive organizational agility and a current of renewed technical empowerment. His emphasis on simplifying processes, shredding Intel’s bloated bureaucracy, and fostering risk-taking within small, fast-moving teams marked a fundamental shift from Intel’s past inertia.
Easier said than done, but Tan is absolutely on the right track with his vision. Execution, especially at speed, will be challenging, but his take on Intel’s necessary course correction is on target.
AI-Centric Custom Silicon and Software-First Thinking Take Priority
Tan’s strategy is also rooted in a platform rethink – specifically shifting from a hardware-first model to a software-first one. He highlighted that Intel will reverse its traditional design process by starting with customer problems and AI workloads before engineering the hardware. This shift aligns with his focus on custom silicon built specifically for defined workloads and the need for new architecture paradigms driven by generative and agentic AI.
Tan referenced his recent engagement with three leading AI and data platforms as an early sign of this pivot. The commitment to AI-driven system design is expected to support both product performance and customer productivity.
With over 250 semiconductor-related VC investments – including photonics, cooling tech, and AI agents – Tan brings strong conviction around future compute models. But again, turning this conviction into scalable, deliverable platforms, let alone in the next few quarters, will test Intel’s execution capabilities.
Foundry Execution and 18A Node Are Core to Market Credibility
Intel Foundry is central to Tan’s turnaround plan, with the company’s 18A process positioned as not only a critical proof point but an imperative milestone to deliver on. The node remains on track for high-volume production in H2 FY 2025, with Panther Lake set to ship on the same node. Look for an upcoming Analyst Insight Report that will dive deeper into this particular topic and why it is so critical for Intel to get this right and stay on schedule.
Tan emphasized rigorous weekly reviews, yield improvements, and customized support for each foundry client. Again, drawing on his Cadence background, he acknowledged that different customers rely on different EDA tools, IPs, and methodologies – and that Intel must support those preferences to build a credible, agile, and resilient foundry business.
Tan also reiterated the need to strengthen Intel’s balance sheet and hinted at divestitures in non-core areas – likely including Mobileye and Altera, despite the growth potential that they could ultimately bring. Tough choices ahead. Ultimately, Tan and Intel’s success will hinge on execution consistency – delivering products on time and at quality – not just speed. Until Intel demonstrates that it can execute Tan’s vision at scale and pace, market confidence will likely remain tentative, and Intel’s recovery won’t be as quick as it could be.
Execution Risk Remains the Defining Challenge
A theme emerges here: While Tan’s engineering-led vision resonates with Intel’s identity and long-term goals, investor, and customer sentiment will rightly remain tethered to operational execution. Tan’s turnaround plan, at least as outlined thus far, is ambitious but not without historical echoes: Intel had previously set seemingly solid technical roadmaps, only to fall short of delivering them on time, and sometimes at all.
What differentiates this cycle may be Tan’s emphasis on cultural accountability, weekly performance checkpoints, and active customer co-design, but perhaps most of all, on Tan himself.
My concern is that if all change is hard, change at scale and at speed is orders of magnitude harder. This is especially true in organizations that have already built the wrong kind of operational muscle memory – from risk aversion and bloated bureaucratic processes to apathy and low employee retention. Tan’s focus on a culture reset and a platform rethink are absolutely the right approach, but change of this magnitude being applied to an organization of Intel’s size will take time to land, build momentum and ultimately yield results.
Having said that, Intel’s ability to simultaneously manage 18A production, foundry client customization, and architectural shifts – while also navigating competitive pressures from TSMC, AMD, Qualcomm, and NVIDIA – will give us some sense of the company’s progress in the quarters ahead.
What to Watch:
- Intel’s ability to deliver 18A in H2 FY 2025 – both Panther Lake and external tape-outs – will be a critical marker of progress
- Cultural change initiatives must overcome years of internal stagnation and disjointed product execution
- Success in AI-centric custom silicon depends on talent acquisition and rapid co-development with hyperscalers and software partners
- Foundry clients will expect tangible signs of improved quality, yield, and ecosystem support before committing to large-scale volumes
See the complete coverage of the Intel Vision 2025 keynote delivered by CEO Lip-Bu Tan on the Intel website.
Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.
Other insights from The Futurum Group:
Intel’s Q3 2024 Earnings Release: Restructuring and Investments
HPE and Intel – Building Future-ready Compute Platforms Together
Author Information
Research Director Olivier Blanchard covers edge semiconductors and intelligent AI-capable devices for Futurum. In addition to having co-authored several books about digital transformation and AI with Futurum Group CEO Daniel Newman, Blanchard brings considerable experience demystifying new and emerging technologies, advising clients on how best to future-proof their organizations, and helping maximize the positive impacts of technology disruption while mitigating their potentially negative effects. Follow his extended analysis on X and LinkedIn.
