Former CEO Blasts Intel's 'Decay': 'We Don't Know How To Engineer Anymore'

Pat Gelsinger, the former Intel CEO who was pushed out in late 2024 during a five-year turnaround effort, told the Financial Times that the 'decay' he found when he returned to the company in 2021 was 'deeper and harder than I'd realized.' In the five years before his return, 'not a single product was delivered on schedule,' he said. 'Basic disciplines' had been lost. 'It's like, wow, we don't know how to engineer anymore!'

Gelsinger was also unsparing about the Biden administration's implementation of the 2022 Chips Act, legislation he spent more time lobbying for than any other CEO. 'Two and a half years later [and] no money is dispensed? I thought it was hideous!' There's what Gelsinger carefully calls 'a touch of irony' in how things played out.

Intel's board forced him out four years into a five-year plan, then picked successor Lip-Bu Tan -- who Gelsinger says is following the same broad strategy. Tan has kept Intel in the manufacturing game and delivered the 18A process node within the five years Gelsinger originally promised. Asked what went wrong, Gelsinger conceded he was 'very focused on managing 'down'' and should have managed 'up' more. He also would have pushed harder for more semiconductor expertise on the board, he said.

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