Intel’s new chief, Lip-Bu Tan, has told employees that the company is no longer among the world’s top 10 semiconductor firms, as reported by OregonLive.
This comment comes as Intel laid off 500 employees recently in Oregon as part of a layoff plan that’s ultimately expected to affect roughly 20% of the chipmaker’s staff. The company is also facing growing pressure from rivals like Nvidia, TSMC, and AMD.
“20, 30 years ago, we were really the leader,” Tan said during a global employee meeting, the report added. “Now I think the world has changed. We are not in the top 10 semiconductor companies.”
The company chief said Intel is falling behind on customer satisfaction and has lost ground to Nvidia in building chips that power artificial intelligence (AI) systems.
The company’s turnaround will be a “marathon,” he said, adding that the job cuts are part of efforts to make Intel more agile and closer in approach to companies like Nvidia, Broadcom, and AMD. “We have to be humble,” Tan said, urging employees to listen more closely to customer needs.
When asked about Tan’s comments, an Intel spokesperson told OregonLive that he was referring to market value, not technology. But OregonLive noted that Tan did not mention valuation in the 20-minute talk and made the comment while discussing company culture.
Intel’s market capitalisation has dropped to about $103 billion, less than half of what it was 18 months ago. That puts it behind at least 15 other chipmakers. Nvidia, in comparison, briefly crossed a $4 trillion market cap on Wednesday.
Tan also said Intel may be too late to compete in the enterprise AI chip market, which Nvidia dominates. “On training, I think it is too late for us,” he said, pointing to Nvidia’s strong lead and large orders from companies like Meta, OpenAI, and xAI.
Meanwhile, Intel’s upcoming chipmaking technology, Intel 18A, may also face a slow uptake. According to Reuters, Tan has expressed concerns that customers may not adopt the new manufacturing node, despite it being built to compete with TSMC’s offerings.