By Adam Clark

Intel needs to recruit a new chief executive for one of the hardest jobs in corporate America. Executives at Apple, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and Marvell Technology Group are among the names that have surfaced as potential candidates for the job.

Intel faces problems both in its chip design and manufacturing businesses. A new boss will have to decide whether to abandon departing CEO Pat Gelsinger's big bet on trying to build Intel into a U.S. chip-manufacturing champion to rival Taiwan Semiconductor, or TSMC, while also trying to stem its market-share losses elsewhere.

While Intel CFO David Zinsner and Michelle Johnston Holthaus, CEO of Intel Products, have been appointed as interim leaders, it appears likely the company's board will seek an external candidate.

Lip-Bu Tan, the current executive chairman of Cadence Design Systems and a former Intel board member, has already been approached, Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The news outlet also said Intel has contacted Matt Murphy, CEO of custom chip company Marvell Technology.

Intel declined to comment. Murphy told analysts on an earnings call on Tuesday that he was "100% focused on Marvell."

Other candidates could include Apple's senior vice president of hardware technologies Johny Srouji, or Charlie Kawwas, president of semiconductor solutions at Broadcom, according to Moor Insights & Strategy analyst Patrick Moorhead. He spoke in an interview with CNBC.

While there are plenty of successful executives at companies that design chips, such as Marvell or Broadcom, one major issue for Intel is the relative shortage of executives who have overseen similar success in chip manufacturing.

"There is no list of strong candidates when it comes to fixing and advancing Intel's manufacturing technology...No one outside of TSMC and Samsung have successfully dealt with billions of dollars of advanced manufacturing nodes and fabs," said Hendi Susanto, portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds.

That might account for a potential interest in Mark Liu, the former Taiwan Semi co-CEO who retired earlier this year, according to the Taiwanese publication DigiTimes. However, the report noted that noncompete clauses could be an issue with such an appointment.

"We believe Intel requires a proven visionary...or an operations leader who has succeeded in building advanced semiconductor manufacturing capacity," wrote Wedbush analyst Matt Bryson in a research note.

Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com

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December 04, 2024 08:35 ET (13:35 GMT)

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