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Who is Lip-Bu Tan, Intel’s New CEO?

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Intel has appointed Lip-Bu Tan as its new CEO, effective March 18, as the company struggles to recover from a challenging period. Tan, a highly regarded semiconductor industry veteran, had long been considered a strong contender for the top role after Intel ousted its previous CEO, Pat Gelsinger, last year.

Tan, 65, is a Malaysian-born executive with an extensive background in both technology investment and chipmaking. He studied physics at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore before pursuing a master’s degree in nuclear engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He also holds an MBA from the University of San Francisco.

Tan is well-known in the semiconductor sector, having served in various leadership roles. He is the chairperson of Walden International, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm, which he has led since 1984. From 2009 to 2021, Tan served as the CEO of Cadence Design Systems, an Intel supplier and chip-design maker.

Throughout his career, Tan has been involved with major technology companies. He has served on the boards of Hewlett Packard Enterprise and SoftBank Group. Tan was appointed to Intel’s board in 2022 as part of efforts to revitalize the company and restore its leadership in the global semiconductor market. The following year, Intel expanded his responsibilities to include overseeing manufacturing operations. However, Tan stepped down from the board in 2023 after disagreements with the company’s direction.

In his first letter to Intel employees, Tan emphasized his commitment to keeping Intel’s design and manufacturing businesses intact, signaling that he would not pursue splitting them up. He expressed confidence in the company’s potential to turn things around, stating, “Intel plays an essential role in the technology ecosystem, both in the U.S. and around the world. And, together, I’m confident we can turn our business around.”

Celestial AI Secures $250 Million to Enhance AI Chip Connectivity

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Silicon Valley-based startup Celestial AI has raised an additional $250 million in venture capital, bringing its total funding to $515 million. The company aims to accelerate AI computing by leveraging photonics—a technology that uses light instead of electrical signals—to enhance the speed of data transfer between AI processing and memory chips.

Memory bandwidth, which determines the efficiency of AI systems, is a crucial factor in chip performance and a key consideration in U.S. government export controls aimed at limiting China’s AI capabilities. Currently, Nvidia dominates this space with its proprietary NVLink and NVSwitch technologies, prompting a surge in investments to develop alternative solutions. Celestial AI’s competitors, Lightmatter and Ayar Labs, have raised $850 million and $370 million, respectively, in similar efforts.

Celestial AI is backed by AMD Ventures, the investment arm of Nvidia’s competitor Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). The company is working on a “photonic fabric” that acts as a high-speed bridge between multiple chips. According to CEO Dave Lazovsky, the technology improves efficiency by reducing energy consumption and latency while saving valuable chip space.

“There are no good answers outside of Nvidia,” Lazovsky said in an interview at Celestial AI’s headquarters in Santa Clara, California. “What we’ve created with photonic fabric achieves similar functionality but with superior energy efficiency and lower latency.”

The funding round was led by Fidelity Management & Research and included BlackRock, Maverick Capital, Tiger Global Management, and former Cadence Design Systems CEO Lip-Bu Tan. Existing investors such as AMD Ventures, Koch Disruptive Technologies, Singapore’s state investor Temasek, and Porsche Automobil Holding also participated.

TSMC CEO Highlights U.S. Investment Driven by Strong Customer Demand

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Taiwanese semiconductor giant TSMC (2330.TW) announced that its increased investment in the United States is primarily driven by strong customer demand, with production lines already fully booked for this year and the next two years. CEO C.C. Wei revealed the company’s expansion plans during a press conference at Taiwan’s presidential office on Thursday. Wei emphasized that TSMC’s $100 billion investment plan, unveiled this week, would not affect its ongoing expansion efforts in Taiwan, despite concerns that overseas investments might harm the island’s semiconductor industry.

TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, plans to construct five additional chip facilities abroad, including in the U.S., Japan, and Germany. This expansion comes in response to demands from major U.S. clients like Apple, Nvidia, and Qualcomm. While TSMC is planning three new production lines in the U.S. over the coming years, it is also set to build 11 new production lines in Taiwan this year, a sign that Taiwan remains crucial to the company’s global operations.

Wei’s comments follow ongoing pressure from former U.S. President Donald Trump, who has criticized Taiwan for taking U.S. semiconductor business and has advocated for bringing semiconductor manufacturing back to U.S. soil. Taiwan President Lai Ching-te assured that Taiwan has not faced external pressure from the U.S. during TSMC’s investment decisions and pledged government support for the company’s domestic expansion.

While Taiwan maintains its dominance in the global semiconductor industry, concerns about over-reliance on the island, particularly amid rising tensions with China, have prompted discussions about diversifying production sites. TSMC’s expansion into the U.S. is seen as a potential solution to address supply chain risks for American technology companies.

Despite these developments, Trump recently called for the repeal of the 2022 bipartisan law that provides $52.7 billion in U.S. subsidies for semiconductor manufacturing, suggesting the funds should instead be used to pay off national debt.