Intel's recent comeback has been spearheaded by CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who has turned around the company & made it the center of tech conversation.
Winning Over President Trump & Elon Musk Was Just The Start, The Real Opportunity of Intel Lies Ahead As CEO Lip-Bu Tan Focuses on "Leadership Through Execution"
Intel's success didn't come overnight. Just a year ago, the company's share was a mess, and it was facing internal and external crises at the same time. However, decisions made by former CEO Pat Gelsinger on the Foundry front and a solid roadmap framework, along with current CEO Lip-Bu Tan, doubling down with those plans, have helped the company get right back on track, and in a way that most of us thought would take years to happen.
One of the leading factors behind Intel's success has been backing from the US Government, & President Donald J Trump himself. The US Government is Intel's 3rd largest shareholder, and holds a 10% stake in the company, valued at $40 Billion (at the start of this month). President Trump continues to say that he's very proud of the company, and he recently congratulated the People of the United States for making a good investment in companies such as Intel.
Intel's "Made-in-US" policy also has a large role in this, with its Fab 52, which became operational last year, responsible for bringing Panther Lake to life on the 18A process technology. This state-of-the-art fab is just one of the many planned by Intel in the US, as it recently landed a contract from the U.S. Department of War for supplying chips and advanced packaging capability in a $151 US Defense program.
18A is important to Intel because its optimized variant, 18A-P, and 14A, will be a game-changer for the company. The 14A process node has already won over Elon Musk, who is utilizing the node for his own TeraFab project. The 18A-P process and EMIB technology have some big names riding behind it, such as Apple, Google, NVIDIA, and Mediatek.
After Lip-Bu Tan became chief executive officer of Intel Corp. in March of last year, the struggling company’s shares went nowhere for seven months while the chipmaker was getting trounced in the market for artificial intelligence.
But after forging ties to the world’s biggest tech titans — and winning over US President Donald Trump — Tan is kicking off year two on a decidedly higher note. Apple Inc. and Tesla Inc. are showing interest in the company’s manufacturing. The processors it makes are back in demand, and budding optimism that Intel will finally start to benefit from the AI boom has sent its stock to a record.
But that's where the next opportunity comes in for Intel. You see, so far, we are only hearing names of "potential" and "rumored" customers that will utilize Intel's Foundries. There is no confirmation, but we also heard the same for Elon Musk a year ago. Tesla was a potential name last year; this year, Intel and Tesla signed an official deal.
Lip-Bu has declined to share any information about customers, but he has clarified that Intel would like its customers to unveil or announce their plans as a gesture of respect.
But Intel is not just looking at external successes; it also needs to deliver on internal successes. So far, Intel has had a few rough patches, but they are coming around them fast. The recent surge in AI CPU demand has bolstered Xeon sales, and the company saw a huge gain last year, selling out its entire wafer capacity as supply constraints hit back due to overwhelming demand.
On the client side, Panther Lake has been great, and the company is ramping up volume to flood the market with more Core Ultra Series 3 and the new Core Series 3 "Wildcat Lake" PCs. We also learned that Intel is working on a multi-product roadmap for the next 2 years, which will encompass various desktop and laptop CPUs, with the sources saying that this isn't the old Intel anymore, it's the new one, and their products are well on track.
Intel has staged a remarkable turnaround under CEO Lip-Bu Tan, shifting from crisis to renewed optimism in just over a year. Building on prior foundations, Tan’s “Leadership Through Execution” strategy, combined with strong U.S. government backing, has driven major progress.
- Manufacturing wins: New U.S. fabs (like Fab 52 for Panther Lake on 18A), defense contracts, and advanced nodes (18A-P and 14A) attracting interest from Apple, Google, NVIDIA, MediaTek, and a confirmed Tesla deal with Elon Musk.
- Business momentum: Surging AI CPU/Xeon demand, sold-out wafer capacity, and strong client-side ramp with Core Ultra Series 3 and upcoming products.
- Market reaction: Shares have hit records amid growing AI optimism and big-tech interest in Intel’s foundry services.
While many customers remain unannounced and leading opportunities ahead, Intel is steadily converting potential into reality — positioning itself as a rising force in U.S. chip manufacturing and AI.
News Source: Bloomberg
About the author: A Software Engineer by training and a PC enthusiast by passion, Hassan Mujtaba serves as Wccftech's Senior Editor for hardware section. With years of experience in the industry, he specializes in deep-dive technical analysis of next-generation CPU and GPU architectures, motherboards, and cooling solutions. His work involves not only breaking news on upcoming technologies but also extensive hands-on reviews and benchmarking.
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