He’s only been on the job for two weeks, but newly appointed Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan gave a major speech at a partner conference this week where he said the ailing company needs to get its act together, and he doesn’t want customers to hold back on their criticism.
Intel’s Vision conference in Las Vegas included several hundred partners and customers, as well as top analysts. It was an attempt to explain to customers what their strategy is, that it has one in the first place, and that the chip maker understands some of the confusion surrounding the company.
Tan opened his keynote with an explanation as to why he took on the arduous task of turning around Intel when he is 65, the age at which most prior Intel CEOs had retired. “Some of the people are asking me, why take on this job now, at this stage in your career, the answer is very simple. I love this company. It was very hard for me to watch its struggle. I simply cannot stay on the sideline knowing that I could help turn things around,” he told the audience.
He also said he recognizes it won’t be easy. “For quite a long time for Intel, we fell behind on innovation. As a result, we have been too slow to adapt and to meet your needs. You deserve better, and we need to improve, and we will, please be brutally honest with us. This is what I expect you this week, and I believe harsh feedback is most valuable,” he said.
To that end, he addressed some of the questionable parts of the Intel business, including its AI accelerator, GPU, and Foundry business. While no products were named, everyone knows what businesses have been struggling.
“Going forward at Intel, we will redefine some of our strategy, and then free up the bandwidth and some of the non-core business,” said Tan. “We will spin it off, but really focus on our core business and how to expand that using AI and software.”
He said that in the past, Intel designed hardware, then partners had to figure out developing the software to make it work. “The world has changed. You have to flip that around. Going forward, we will start with the problem, what you’re trying to solve, and the workloads you need to handle enable. Then we work backward from that, that require embrace the software 2.0 mentality, which means that having a software-first design,” said Tan.
Analysts in attendance liked what they heard, even if it was limited in specificity. “What was clear to me was Tan will be focused on eliminating distractions, investing in talent and making sure the company has a more compelling roadmap to compete in the AI data center race,” said Daniel Newman, CEO of The Futurum Group.
He said there was a cautious optimism evident at the event as the certainty of its new leadership provided a boost for its partners and employees. “However, there are still more questions than answers, and that should be expected, given his recent arrival and clear philosophy about what needs to come next, which in many ways starkly contrasted what came before,” said Newman.
Bob O’Donnell, president and chief analyst with TECHnalysis Research, said the strategy that Tan discussed at his keynote isn’t really much different than those described by his predecessor: build great products and a great foundry business.
“That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though, because I believe they’re ultimately the right things for the company to pursue. The difference is that Lip-Bu seemed more willing to tackle the challenge of right-sizing Intel and mentioned cutting things that aren’t core to the business. The big unanswered question is, however, what does he consider those areas/products to be so, as always, the devil is in the details,” he said.
Source:: Network World