Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan has instituted a brand new hands-on management coverage requiring his non-public evaluation and approval of each primary chip design sooner than tape-out, marking an important shift towards centralized oversight within the corporate’s product construction procedure. The coverage goals to reinforce execution and scale back construction prices because the suffering chipmaker works to regain its aggressive edge.The brand new self-discipline is a part of Tan’s broader solution to improve Intel’s product roadmap and reinforce monetary efficiency, following the corporate’s first unprofitable 12 months since 1986. Intel posted a web lack of $18.8 billion for 2024 and has been operating to streamline operations underneath Tan’s management since he took over as CEO in March 2025.
CEO implements direct oversight to streamline chip construction and reduce prices
Tan has directed engineering groups to outline next-generation product households with “blank and easy architectures, higher price buildings and simplified SKU stacks,” in keeping with an organization message despatched to workers in July. The CEO’s hands-on means represents a departure from conventional semiconductor business practices, the place design choices normally glide via more than one control layers.The coverage comes as Intel faces mounting force from competition, in particular Taiwan Semiconductor Production Corporate (TSMC), in each production functions and buyer relationships. Tan has additionally been operating to scale back Intel’s body of workers by means of roughly 15%, reducing control layers by means of about 50% in the second one quarter of 2025.Intel’s foundry trade has struggled to draw primary exterior consumers like Apple and Nvidia, who proceed to depend on TSMC for chip production. The corporate is now focusing assets on its 14A production procedure whilst reconsidering its technique to the 18A procedure that fed on billions in construction prices.The brand new evaluation coverage is a part of Intel’s broader transformation efforts, which come with consolidating operations, slowing building initiatives, and refining the corporate’s synthetic intelligence technique to concentrate on inference and agentic AI packages.