Assertion Supported
Tan: President Trump asked him to resign over conflicts of interest
“Well, the most surprising that I don't learn from my previous job or even training is one day early morning, President Trump asking me to resign and a conflict of interest, and there's no exceptions.”
Assertion Partly supported
Tan: Jensen Huang's $5B Intel investment is now worth $25B+
“Secondly, very happy that Jensen Huang, my old time friend, he also put five billion in investing and support me. And I'm glad I at least do some good work. It's five billion become twenty five billion now and or more.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Tan: AI inference is shifting CPU-to-GPU ratios toward 1:4 or 1:1
“Right now, the authentic AI and inference, CPU become, you know, highly in demand. And so, you know, versus one to eight in the training CPU to GPU, now I can see one to four, maybe one to one, and I'm delighted CPU become important.”
Prediction Open · timeframe Jun 2031
Tan: Chip manufacturing will reach 10A and 7A nodes despite escalating costs
“So I think I can see, you know, right now we have A and then now going to production of A, I can see 10 and seven. And so I think that path, I think we can get there, but couldn't it be more and more expensive and more difficult to do?”
Insight
Tan: Chip startups should target hyperscalers on day one, even granting warrants
“The next thing is look at, it's very important from day one, you'd have to target the first customer. And usually I like the customer is hyperscale. They have the scale. If they like what you have, they're willing to pay millions of dollars next few years. And…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Tan: Intel Foundry is very distant from TSMC on performance and yields
“And the Foundry side, we are very distant from TSMC. And then in terms of their performance, so that's we have to be humble looking at building the building block, like I mentioned earlier, the IP, the yield, the defect density, and the cycle time to make it m…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Tan: Intel Foundry turnaround will begin surfacing around 2031 or 2032
“So those are the things will take longer time, but I think by 32,032, 31, 32, I think I was starting to surface up.”
Disclosure
Tan: Setting goal of 10x shareholder return at Intel within a decade
“So it's hard to do that at Intel because the base is bigger. So I kind of said, okay, let's do it at 10 X, you know, and then, and five years, 10 years, we can Do Xx. I think it's a good return. Being a venture capital at heart. That's kind of my goal.”
Disclosure
Tan: All Intel engineers report directly to the CEO
“And also the other part, from day one, I decided all the engineers report to me.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Tan: Memory is the biggest AI bottleneck and takes years to fix
“Everybody know right now, memory is the biggest shortage. And everybody tried to scramble for memory. And then even though you want to build a fab to capacity increase, it would take a couple of years to do that.”
Disclosure
Tan: Intel is already planning for 1nm and 0.7nm nodes
“And then the most advanced process, like for example, we have the, you know, the is like 1.4 nanometer.
And we are already starting to plan for one nanometer and 0.7 nanometer.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Tan: Jensen Huang invests in almost every photonics-related company
“Look at Jensen. He invests in almost every company is photonic related.”
Insight
Tan: AI Factories and Semiconductor Foundries Require Sovereign and Government Capital
“And then in terms of the capital intensive, like AI in a factory and also the foundry, and then you really need to tap either government funding or some sovereign fund, and also some very big capital. You know, there's some big fund that doing that, and they'r…”
Disclosure
Tan: Intel CEO personally handles all recruitment without search firms
“By the way, all the recruitment, I do it myself. No search firm helping.”
Disclosure
Lip-Bu Tan reports 159 IPOs, 126 M&A exits across his investment career
“You know, I still have 159 IPO, one 126 you know, M&A. And that's include semiconductor. Just break down to semiconductor. I invest over the years 200, and 38% is in US.”
Opinion
Lip-Bu Tan: Open-source physical AI technology is a goldmine
“And right now, beside the agentic AI, now you're looking at physical AI, it's a mixed big frontier, and then you have to really look at a full stack. That's why I'm still involved with a lot of this frontier model that we very familiar, and some of the investm…”
Disclosure
Tan: Invested in 3D Glass Solutions for advanced glass packaging
“And then in terms of packaging, I started to invest into glass. Glass is a very good heat Insulator. So we, I even invest in a venture site called three DGS.”
Disclosure
Tan: Invested in Diamond Foundry for semiconductor packaging applications
“I also starting to look at artificial diamond. And that's another very good, you know, insulator. So I also invest into, you know, diamond foundry.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Tan: Nine in Ten Portfolio Startups Pivot Midstream
“Nine of the 10 companies I invest, halfway they change their business plan because market have changed.”
Assertion Supported
Tan: Venture Capital Firms Are Now Putting $1B Checks Into Startups
“And some of the venture firm willing to put one billion into some company is very unheard of in the VC business. Now it's happening.”
Assertion Supported
Tan: Cadence delivered an ~85x shareholder return under his leadership
“You know, at Cadence, when I stepped down as a CEO, I think we make about close to 76 times, you know, starting from interim CEO, two dollar 42 cents. And then when I retired as security chairman, about 85 times return to the shareholder.”
Lip-Bu Tan