By Heather Somerville

Lip-Bu Tan, who is set to take over as Intel's chief executive next week, is a veteran of the semiconductor industry who has an even longer track record as a technology investor, particularly in Chinese companies.

A former Intel board member, Tan will lead a once-venerated U.S. company that has seen its fortunes fall as the artificial-intelligence boom prompted a shift in industry demand away from its central processing chips.

Here are five things to know about Tan and Intel.

Semiconductor titan

Tan, 65, has risen to become a titan in the semiconductor business, receiving a top honor in 2022 from the Washington-based Semiconductor Industry Association.

Tan gained fame during his tenure leading Cadence Design Systems from 2009 to 2021, helping to turn around the company, focusing on what Intel said was customer-centric innovation that helped double revenue and expand margins.

"Cadence was in pretty big trouble" in 2009, Morris Chang, the chairman of chip titan Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., said in a tribute to Tan in 2016. "Lip-Bu led Cadence out of the trouble."

Walden founder

Before Cadence, Tan was widely known as a venture capitalist.

Tan, who has a master's degree in nuclear engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.B.A. from the University of San Francisco, founded Walden International in 1987 and focused on startups in Asia. The company's name stemmed from Tan's fascination with the "contrarian thinking" of American essayist Henry David Thoreau, who wrote about Walden Pond in Massachusetts, according to a 2004 article in Businessweek.

Walden was an early investor in Semiconductor Manufacturing International, eventually investing more than $50 million in the Chinese chip giant. Tan served on the board of that company and China's Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment, and he has been a fixture at Silicon Valley events hosted by the professional group Chinese-American Semiconductor Professional Association.

He served two years on the board of SoftBank Group, whose Vision Fund has been a mammoth investor in Silicon Valley in recent years.

Walden and China

Tan's extensive ties to China have made him the target of scrutiny from Washington. Walden has backed Chinese technology companies in critical sectors such as semiconductors and AI.

In 2023, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party sent a letter to Tan raising "serious concern" about Walden's investments in semiconductor, quantum-computing and artificial-intelligence companies in China, including some that the Commerce Department has blacklisted for involvement in human-rights abuses or Chinese military uses. A report from the same committee found that Walden's internal documents cited the Chinese government's prioritization of semiconductors as a reason to invest in the sector.

A Wall Street Journal report in 2021 found that Walden made at least 25 investments in Chinese chip companies from 2017-2020, accounting for more than 40% of the Chinese semiconductor deals involving U.S. venture investors during that period.

Intel breakup?

The chipmaker's shares rose by more than 10% in after-hours trading Wednesday. While Intel's shares have languished in the last 12 months, its performance has been propped up by investor speculation that it could break up its manufacturing and product businesses.

The Journal reported last month that TSMC and Broadcom had preliminary discussions about deals, with TSMC having an interest in controlling Intel's chip plants. Intel executives said they would create a separate board for the manufacturing business, a move some analysts saw as having the potential to lead to a breakup.

"The key question is whether Lip-Bu will keep product and foundry business together or go for a split," Raymond James analyst Srini Pajjuri said.

Broadcom's CEO said this week he wasn't currently pursuing any acquisitions.

California ties

"There's nothing I dislike more than losing," Tan said Wednesday in a message to employees, noting that he learned as an athlete in college to trust his teammates.

Born in what is now Malaysia and raised in Singapore, he has served on a number of community and other boards in California, including the University of California, San Francisco Health System's executive council, the Fuller Theological Seminary and at Carnegie Mellon University.

He has been an elder at the First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley and served with former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger as a "cabinet member" for Transforming the Bay With Christ, a nonprofit organization.

"I enjoy swimming, snow skiing, fly fishing, hiking, and spending time with my family and church," Tan said in his bio at Walden Catalyst, an early-stage venture firm Tan founded.

Write to Heather Somerville at heather.somerville@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 13, 2025 08:00 ET (12:00 GMT)

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