The Long View: Lip-Bu Tan, CEO of Intel

“The Angle” Music

Cold OPEN “…with all your success, this is iconic company. This is so important for industry and for country. Before you retire, save Intel. That touched my heart.”

Eric Veiel

Welcome back to ‘The Angle from T. Rowe Price’, a podcast for curious investors. Just a reminder that outside of the U.S., this podcast is for investment professionals only. For this episode of The Long View, I sat down with Lip-Bu Tan, CEO of Intel, in Menlo Park, California. We discussed his journey to Intel, the future of AI infrastructure, and what it will take for one of technology's most iconic companies to compete in the next era of compute.

Well, Lip-Bu thank you so much for joining us on The Angle. We really appreciate you taking the time to be with us. Intel is interesting. It's one of the few companies whose turn around matters not only to shareholders, but to the structure of the entire global semiconductor supply chain and, frankly, to U.S. national sovereignty. Before we get into that, though, I'd love to start with you. I always like to get to know my guests a little bit personally. And you've got a really interesting story. Born in Malaysia, youngest of five. Your father was in the journalism business. Your mother worked at the university. As a kid, I'm curious, what did you love to do? Like what did you spend your time on when you were a little kid?

Lip-Bu Tan

So first of all, thank you so much for inviting me for this podcast. And I think a little bit of my background. Born in Malaysia, Muar, Johor, just north of Singapore and, and I, you know, followed my mum to Singapore for my education and high school college before I came to U.S. for graduate school. And when I was young, the, you know, my brother and sister, they all. My mum is very strict with them. So they had to play, you know, piano lessons and all the way up to performance and composer. And my brother is in orchestra playing violin, and then I supposed to do the same thing in the piano, and I was just too lazy. And then I loved catching spider. And I played basketball, volleyball as a team. And so, I kind of having fun. And my mom, you know, being the youngest, she let me do whatever I want, so turned out to be a lot of freedom to do that. And then my mom also for some reason, she said, well, all your brothers and sister they sent to English school. The last one is I sent you to Chinese school. So, learn the Confucian theory and everything. And so, you know, I always apologize to me that sorry that your English is not good. Is a second language. So, in some way I survived.

Eric Veiel

Well, you definitely did more than survive. That's a, that's a really great story. I was also the youngest. The youngest always get away with.

Lip-Bu Tan

The way.

Eric Veiel

That's actually good. It's a good place to be in the birth order.

Lip-Bu Tan

I love basketball. I love volleyball. And then, you know, in the vocal lesson and piano. It's kind of boring for me. And until now, I appreciate that. That's why I was on board of the San Francisco Opera, and I love music. And then you can't do it yourself. Then you just be supportive.

Eric Veiel

Just be a supporter. So you then you went on to major in physics. What, did something in particular draw you to physics, or just there was your good good in that area and you liked it?

Lip-Bu Tan

Yeah, in some ways, follow my brother and sister and, you know, in some way my brother is a Rhodes scholar and then went to Cambridge and Oxford and, and, then I tried to. My teacher always said that, well you are, you are doing great, but you are less than your brother. And so, you know that feeling. Oh, yeah. And so I wanted to do something different from my brother. And he became the cardiologist to artificial heart and he do physics. So initially, I doing physics just like him in Nanyang Technology University. And I say physics did pretty good. I'm good with mathematics. Physics is all the physical. And then it's good training. And I did it in three years and then, but they said, well, you're not, your brother is better. So, I decided to change, you know, to come to U.S. and then do a nuclear engineering.

Eric Veiel

Right. So you were the slacker, so you had to go to MIT to get your master's in nuclear engineering. Okay.

Lip-Bu Tan

Because I applied to Berkeley and Stanford. They reject me.

Eric Veiel

Oh, okay.

Lip-Bu Tan

So am I. For some reason, they accept me to be a nuclear engineer. That's why I pursue them.

Eric Veiel

That's great. What was your impression of the U.S. when you. Was that your first time in the U.S. when you went to MIT?

Lip-Bu Tan

I am. So, from Singapore and kind of exciting to come to MIT at Boston. And then so excited the first time to see snow. And sometimes I just.

Eric Veiel

Not a lot of snow in Singapore. Yeah.

Lip-Bu Tan

Never see a snow. So, in some ways it's kind of exciting. And, of course, the Charles River, the Boston and it just amazing. I just loved it.

Eric Veiel

Yeah, it's a beautiful place. So you got your degree from MIT, and then you did some technical work. You were in the energy industry for a while doing some of that. But then you ended up with a really interesting background, and you moved to Walden, one of the most important venture firms, especially in the Asia-Pacific region. Tell us a little bit about how, how that that happened.

Lip-Bu Tan

So, I did not finish my PhD because of Three Mile accident, the placement director because their office at the air con. So, I love to do my homework at this office. And then he's kind of bored. I'm the only person in the room. So, he talked to me and I said, which department? I said Department 22, nuclear engineering, and his jaw drop. He said, get out of here. There's no nuclear power plant bill at the Three Mile Island, right? I said, I have a full research assistant. You know, I'm comfortable. And then doing my PhD. Don't listen to your professor. Just get out. So, I wrap up my master's degree, and then I said, well, I don't know where to apply, I’m a foreign student. He said, okay, just apply to one company called EDS Nuclear. So, I apply one, my whole life. I wrote one resume to apply to it, and then they sent me a three-day trip leaving the hotel. I never visit San Francisco. So, I went and visit. Then they gave me a job.

And then, so long and behold they asked me to do a rotation. Said Lip-Bu what do you like to do. I say I have no clue. So he said, okay, we put a program for you every three months. You go to a different location. At the end it's available which division you want. And I said, maybe your office, doing project management. Done. And so, I worked with the president and then help him to do the project management. And one day, three of the senior executive vice, executive vice president called me up for lunch. And he said, I said, if you want to get some more budget or review, we can do it in the conference room. Promise you, no business and we just want to take you for lunch. I said, okay, great. And then long and behold, that lunch is basically asked me to join them to do a startup. So, that's my first startup experience that time. I'm only about 20 plus years old, or 21 or 22. Nothing to lose.

Eric Veiel

That's how you got there. Okay. Interesting. Well, let's fast forward a little bit. So you end up in 2004 after a successful venture career, starting some of the most important companies in the industry supply chain, especially on the hardware side, which is interesting. So, most people now think of venture as sort of the software side, but really big on the hardware side. You joined the Cadence board in 2004, and then in 2009 you became CEO, had, had, that job for 12 years. Interestingly, though, when you took over Cadence, it was an established company but going through a pretty rough time. So, you know, what did you learn in terms of sort of turning around that, that company that you've had to, to bring forward as you've thought about your role at Intel today?

Lip-Bu Tan

Yeah. So, a little bit background. You know, I, you know, to become venture capitalist. And I tried to knock on everybody doors and everybody said, nice to meet you, but nobody gave me offer. So, I now find out the small firm called Warden Capital is a S.P.I.C. And then, so I told them, the two partner said that you don't have to pay me, I'll pay for myself. And so, I end up that I, I raised about 3.3 million. That's how I started Warden International. And then right now we manage about almost, more than four, four, four billion under management. And then I kind of  build brick by brick in terms of Asia because people thought Lip-Bu. What is your master plan? Actually, I don't have my master plan. I just want to go and visit my mom in Singapore, and that's why I built that. And then long and behold, and venture capital I really enjoy and not to brag about it. And under my watch on Warden International, we invest myself, and also my some of my colleagues. We have 153 IPO and 126 M&A transactions, successful one. So not to brag about it I really enjoy it.

Eric Veiel

Well, 3.3 million to 4 billion. That's a, it's a big return.

Lip-Bu Tan

Three million as a start.

Eric Veiel

Three million.

Lip-Bu Tan

To become in a couple billion under management. And so, with that I kind of enjoy doing that. One day I got call to join the company called Cadence Design to join the board. And I said, why do I need to join a Cadence board? And they're not number one, you’re number two. Synopsis - number one. So, I kind of hesitate to join. And then the chief, my friend at Synopsis said, you shouldn't join number two, you should join us. But long story short, I decided to join number two, and so enjoy doing that. And one day phone kept ringing. Finally, I pick up the phone. What's up? Said Lip-Bu, can you come back quickly? I said, yeah, tomorrow I'm flying back. And then I found that they said, Lip-Bu, we just fired the CEO, and then you should join. You become the interim CEO. That is $2.42 when I took over. And then I supposed to do three months, and I want to go back to my venture business, and I, my first love and they said about three months we do a search. And then initially, they include me in the search committee. But later on I was so busy with customer. So I said, you know, why don't you guys do the search? You find the CEO, let me know. I'll pass the key to him, then I move back to venture capital. And one day the chairman came over, and with smiling face I said, okay, now I can give you the key. I can go back to my kid and my my Warden side. Lip-Bu, you can keep your key. I said, wait a minute. So that's my three-month journey become 15 years, you know, 12 ½ years as CEO. Then I recruited my successor. And then, then I served on two years as executive chairman. And then, then I stepped down after 15 years and then just being a large shareholder.

And so learned quite a bit. You know, first of all, I never been the CEO. So, the director of Human HR gave me three books, you know the CEO for dummies. So, I read every page. And one thing good is, you know, you don't have the background and I'm very open-minded. So, I make a huge mistake. I reach out to the employee, all hand meeting. I said that if you have any good idea about how to run this company, send me an email. And then I received 3,000 plus email per day. But I did promise, I respond each one of them, and some of them I visit them. They drop to tears, Lip-Bu we never, I, we send an email to CEO, never got reply, and you show up in my cubicle and try to listen to us. It's amazing and we love it. Love you. So long story short, you know I stay on for 15 years. Turn around the company. And then, then I kind of, formed my thesis of how to turn around.

Eric Veiel

So it's interesting. One of the things that you, you just mentioned about your Cadence experience was really getting to know the technicals and understanding the details of what the company does and what really matters to customers. Let's fast forward to, to, your time at Intel now. So, kind of a similar story. You're on the board. They make a CEO change and they ask you to, to step in and run the company. What was the first thing that you, you did when you got to Intel?

Lip-Bu Tan

Yeah. Good news is that two years on the board and also before that, you know, when I came from school, Intel is a role model for successful semiconductor company in terms of gross margin, in terms of paranoid survive, those things that I care a lot, and a lot of admiration. So, it's kind of sad to see that the company is kind of spiraled down, and meanwhile is an iconic company. And then it's so important for the industry, and also for United States. So, when they asked me to step in to be a CEO, it's not an  easy decision. Couple of very good friend of mine in the industry. They are CEO somewhere and also some top executives. 80% of people I talk to, they told me don't do it. You know, first of all, you know, no guarantee of success. Secondly, you have so much success in building company. You turn around Cadence Design. You don't need another one. People know that you're good and people only, only remember the last one. So, if you screwed up, you know you're going to be failure for the rest of your life.

So it's quite compelling. And then, but there's one friend of mine, he told me Lip-Bu, he sent me a very nice, thoughtful, he from Seattle, a good friend of mine. He’s a good customer; said Lip-Bu, with all your success, this is iconic company. This is so important for industry and for country. Before you retire, save Intel. That touched my heart. And then the other part is, five years ago, I was one of the final candidate, two final candidate. That time, I decided not to take it because, you know, the I did promise Anirudh, my successor at Cadence I would stay on until he became a CEO. And so timing is not right. So I pass. And then, but this time, you know, my wife even supported. And last one she said no. And for a very good reason for family. And then this time, you know, at home. She's the boss. And we married for 44 years.

Eric Veiel

Wow, congratulations.

Lip-Bu Tan

And, and she said that this time I think your heart is already in. I can see you emotionally so upset about some of the things happen. You must do it. I will support you. So that means a lot to me. So I think I decided to jump in and then that's my beginning of the Intel journey.

Eric Veiel

So when you get there, the company's, you know, really had a struggle. It's gone from sort of the iconic, you know,  truly differentiated manufacturer, to sort of well surpassed by several competitors, especially TSMC. What was the first thing that you. Did you diagnose it as a strategy problem, an execution problem, or something else?

Lip-Bu Tan

So, one thing I did is, I decided from day one just back to Cadence, I want to have all engineering report to me. So then I can starting to identify where are the problem with the product. Where is the problem with the foundry, you, and customer feedback. And so, first of all, I think engineering so that I have a better understanding what, what went wrong. Secondly, I spent a lot of time with customer, and customer share with me that, Lip-Bu, we are so excited you become the CEO, and they gave me a lot of feedback. Some of the big mistake make, and one of them is very interesting. They said, well, they are so proud. They lecture us, they not listen to us, they lecture us. Then we basically quietly design Intel. Now we share with you the 14 screwed up that you have. And I took down every single screwed up. And I get back to them one by one. And that's why they said, Lip-Bu, that’s why we just love you. And we just delighted that you listen carefully what we describe to you. So, one thing good about me is I listen to the customer. I take notes every meeting, I come prepared, I take notes and then make sure that we correct the mistake. And then I will tell the team, look, you have to tell me all the bad news. If I went to the customer, I go to the customer. They share something that you didn't share with me. You're in deep trouble. So, share with me bad news. Then you will be fine.

Eric Veiel

We have that expression. Bad news needs to travel fast. Good news always travels fast.

Lip-Bu Tan

Good news, you can always set up it later on in nano second to celebrate it. And that's kind of my style. And then the other part is a very important to focus on changing the culture. I found out that when I took over, we have many layers of management, and then some of them is not a ten, and I try to swing it down to five. And so, hold people accountable. So, something screw up, everybody pointing fingers or somebody else. Nobody takes responsible for it. So, I said, well I'm going to put people in charge that they are accountable to me. And I go down to six, seven layers down. It's not micromanaging, but it's kind of make sure that we really addressing the issue of design and listen to the customer and then make sure we correct that, so that accountability is very important.

Secondly, the middle management loved to have meetings. So, I talked to more than 100 top executives from Intel before, they told me that 89% of their time spent in meetings. At the end, same presentation I had to repeat 36 times. And not nobody make decision, or the decision maker have no clue about the product. They don't make a decision. So I hear that loud and clear, so I decided, you know, speed up. I call it the speed of light. And then, so you had to move fast like startup and then don't have this long meeting. So, I'm the first one set the example. A meeting without agenda, without clear deliverable, without answer that at the end of the meeting, we just cancel the meeting. And then all meeting that I don't see there's value that I can bring in, there's no point for me in the meeting. So, people starting to realize Lip-Bu just don't like meeting. If you want to have a meeting, we better prepare because Lip-Bu want to have your material two or three days beforehand. He really read through every single one. You don't have to go to slide-to-slide presentation. He will ask you the five questions that he want to know. The meeting finished.

So, I think to be respectful they prepare a lot. So make sure that you pay attention to it, so that you give them the honest feedback or decision making so you don't have to waste people time. I think people like that. So, I think all in all, those are the few key changes. Listen to customer, and focus on the right product address and change the product, we can go into detail which are the product we need to change, and then what at  the foundry. And then understanding the foundry business, and not just the yield performance defect density cycle time. Also, you need to have the right IP to set the customer. Without that you don't even talk about customer. They won't they won't engage.

Eric Veiel

So before we get into that, I do want to ask you. So, when you got started, you had a lot of things to change at Intel. You just talked about those. You didn't get the warmest reception from the U.S. government out of the gate, but then you, you met with the president and now the U.S. is a large shareholder. And I think you have regular contact with at least the administration through the Commerce secretary or through the president directly. So how does it impact running the company when you have a large shareholder that's the U.S. government?

Lip-Bu Tan

Yeah. First of all, I think that  Thursday morning, my phone kept ringing. They said, well, president, want you have to resign. And so first of all, I kind of talk to myself because I usually, morning I have a gym and swim before I do my work. And that day, a little bit disrupted because of this phone call. So, I had to pay attention. First of all, I just to tell myself I don't need this job. I come here to save Intel, so take myself out of the picture, just focus on what need to be done for the company. And so, first of all, I just set up appointment to see President Trump. And then good news is they listen to me. At least let me explain. I come from, I born in Malaysia, grown up in Singapore. I went to MIT. I never leave the country after this. My grandchildren, my, my, children, they all live in U.S. This is our home. I never live in China, and so I'm glad they listened to me. And then so very clear after they listened to me, they said Lip-Bu, we want to own 10% of the company of your vision. And I did share my vision. How they asked me, how long did it turn around? I said, two years. Give me two years. And then? Then the next day. Today is Monday afternoon. Friday I went to announce that we owned 10%. So, you work out with Howard and Scott, and that's my assignment. So, I worked really hard on it. So good news. We negotiate the term and I think it's very attractive term. It's a very commercial term. They have no governance. They have no board seat. And, and, then I think you saw the social media. They are very proud that we make more than five times for their investment.

Eric Veiel

Yeah, good investment.

Lip-Bu Tan

Yeah. Yeah. So I think they are happy. They have been good cheerleader and be supportive. And that's what I need.

Eric Veiel

So, let's take it to where we are today with, with, the business. So, you know data center CPU usage is exploding as agentic use cases come. And for a long time it was sort of all about the GPU. But now the CPU is really come to the fore. So, a lot of demand for anything CPU related. Obviously that's Intel's core. But competitions actually, you know, really picking up. We've got AMD and Nvidia announcing their new CPU. Hyperscalers are designing, designing, their own. So, take us to where you see your competitive advantage today and what you've got on the roadmap here.

Lip-Bu Tan

So I think, you know, in some way if you kind of monitoring what I say in my earning call, and I thought that CPU is very important, especially when you go into agentic and inference and, and I'm glad in life sometimes you need a break and the break, it turned out to be the case. And then as you know, I also invest a lot of frontier company. And so understanding the reinforced learning and, and, then the agentic, you know, managing all the agents orchestration, CPU actually is better use for the ratio, you know, from training is one CPU to eight GPU. And then now I starting to see CPU to GPU. The ratio for inference is almost 1-to-1. So that turned out to be a big huge. Great opportunity for me. Like anytime you see a huge opportunity, people want to come in. So first of all, I think clearly AMD is very well respected. Lisa is a very good friend of mine and we like delighted that she's doing very well. I still remember she come to me. Hey Lip-Bu should I take this job? And I told him, told her that your market cap cannot be lower than, but realize I'm a chairman, and you got to be higher than that and then hit on the fabulous job on that.

Then of course, the other part is ARM, you know, Nvidia is based on ARM, and even ARM himself, they want to not just IP licensing. They also try to build the CPU products. So now I decided to build within Intel to do that. So, it's something that purpose-built silicon GPU, and also some of these connectivity. Purpose-built silicon based on different workload. And that would be the future for Intel for growth. And so different application, different type of CPU. You need to do surgical, so that you can really optimize for different workload. And the other part, we have the CPU. Now I quietly building my GPU, I hired the top CP GPU architect, and I'm also going to get one or two top-notch CPU architect so that I can build the different workload for different agentic AI.

And then, so I think that part, stay tuned, that's where my growth engine going to be. And then I have the CPU, GPU, I have the advanced packaging and the most advanced packaging. I had the, coming up really strong on the process foundry. So, then I have the supply chain. I can build the purpose built in a different application. Right now, I'm going after the vertical market I'm going after, so I think stay tuned. That will be my future growth.

Eric Veiel

So, you're really taking the, the, expression your margin is my opportunity here to, to, to, bring it home for Intel. One of the things that somebody explained to me, when you think about the foundry business and just how competitive that is, it's a little bit like being on a treadmill where every two minutes somebody increases the speed at which you're which you have to run. Do you feel like you've got to sort of start running even faster now because, you know, Intel kind of fell off that treadmill for a while. How do you get back up to pace with these competitors?

Lip-Bu Tan

So, I think first thing I do is basically strengthen my balance sheets. I still remember the first few months, some of the talent I tried to bring on board is, they said, Lip-Bu, you are literally a bankrupt company, then why should I join you? I love you, but, you know, not joining. But finally, I address the balance sheet. That's the most important first step. Secondly, is really attract some of the best talent I can get. Each one of them by building. Same thing with the GPU architect, CPU architect, same thing with the foundry. So, I picked some of the leading technology leader to come on board and then helping me to drive and also outside help. And I also change the culture. Intel used to be very proud, don't even share the data. And I insist to share the data. And then the next day, you know, the people, they got the data, they call me up, Lip-Bu, the number look horrible. And I say, well, that's why I asking you for help. So help, my good friend. So they did help me.

And then the other part is some of the you know, we call it Intel tree. These are the older node. Our use is very poor. I just insist somebody to fly over there. Don't come back until you fix the problem. And then basically if you see that I increase my capex because I had to buy equipment for building up the, you know, the lead times quite long.

Eric Veiel

Well, on the capex intensity has gotten so high now. I mean, you've really got to invest behind these things aggressively.

Lip-Bu Tan

So, I will be doing that. So, I think, you know, I'm excited. And so I think we're going to be a major player. And then in some way back to this natural treasure for the advanced technology foundry, there's only one in U.S., is us. And then 90 plus percent is manufacturing in Taiwan. So something, you know, when you have only one company is always very risky for resilient and robust supply chain. You need that. We learned that from the memory. Now, it's a big crisis going on. So again, I think you know from the product side I'm building up to regain my market share. And then some of the new market I'm going after. And then on the PC client, and the big fun opportunity is agentic AI. And then, then the physical AI going to be next big wave. You need to have a full stack. So, I'm also going to move into the whole system platform. So, it's not just selling a chip. So I want to have my software. I want to have. That's why you saw my announcement with Foxconn. I'm going to be more partnership and more in the focus on the best technology leadership team to drive me. So in a way, I'm just not just, if you saw my Computex speech, it's not I do the whole speech. I have my colleagues doing some part of it. So, in a way it's like basketball team. You have a team and then you just play your role. And so, I become a conductor and then cheering for the all the executive team to deliver. And I support them. And you're going to see that. And same thing I embrace the partnership. We can't do everything yourself.

Eric Veiel

And it sounds like the vision here is so much more than just, you know, the way Intel is described today, right. You have the PC business? You have the data center business, you have the foundry business. But this is, this is a lot more over time if you're bringing in all of these different layers and going and beyond that. What do you think is a reasonable time frame to deliver on all these different ambitions that you have? Is this a five-year plan? A ten-year plan?

Lip-Bu Tan

When I came on board, the board and I we work on five-year plan, and then five-year plan, I think I accomplished in 14 months. So, the last board meeting they asked me, Lip-Bu, it got to be bigger. And then you already get what you want in five years. You did it in 14 months. So, I think I grew up five-year, ten-year plan with, god willing, you know, I will continue to do that. And then I tell my team, you know, I'm here for ten years, so don't think that I'm going to leave somewhere. And then we just focus on the business, focus on the product, focus on the process as if I'm going to be here for ten years. And then of course, just I, you know, at Cadence, I will gradually bring in talent that are potentially my successor. So you can stay tuned. See, some of the people I brought on board, those will be the, the, candidate for me. And, you know, I want to have a strong bench. And what I told my team, don't get too hang up about how many people report to you, how big a scope you are. Just be part of the team. We're going to be, we want to work for championship like New York Knicks. We want to be a championship team. Let's do each one. Play our part. I will play my part. You know, I will get my job done. You get your job done and we help each other. And then we are getting the coach, to-coach us, to how to be a good team player and then win the championship. And the goal is much higher than what I said. And then so, let's work on it for the next ten years and hopefully it will be a great company that we all can be proud of.

Eric Veiel

Let me ask you one more before we go to our kind of lightning round at the end, we're clearly in an amazing capex cycle, like one that's hard to even put into any historical context because it's so amazing. But all cycles end at some point. If you had to just make a prediction on how this one will eventually end, what would that, what would be the cause?

Lip-Bu Tan

Yeah, I think it's hard to predict but let me just show a few pointers that I kind of form my own opinion. So, one, this whole AI growth is very exciting to build a massive infrastructure. And I think I think that it's a little bit remind me of internet, but this is bigger than the internet. But if you look at internet that's going to be a few big winner. And they are really laser focused on what application they want to drive. You look at Netflix, you look at Amazon. You know, it's really disrupt the industry, and by this new way of doing things. Then you look at AI, I think you can starting to see things is changing. So, I think you're starting to see some of this AI movement. I really focus on what application, what ROI, you know. In fact, I just joined the MIT CEO advisory board and there's two professor present something what is  very eye catching they are addressing. Today, they don't see the ROI. They don't see the performance improvement. And in terms of productivity.

Eric Veiel

Little academic studies that show.

Lip-Bu Tan

That they show that in some way it's kind of keep you alert. Even though I may not agree to what they are presenting. But it's very important to focus what application, what are you driving? So, you got to see the application. Then you triple down, design the product to drive those applications, and then I think you have a better chance to succeed. And that's why I kind of formulate my strategy. And then so, over time I become the infrastructure or the silicon or platform providing those applications.

Eric Veiel

Interesting. That's a smart way to do it. We've got a series coming in July on The Angle, actually looking at how AI moves from promise into real world impact. And that's really it sounds like what you're what you're getting at. I'd love to, if you don't mind. If you'll indulge me, we like to end these with a few rapid-fire questions. Just, this is going to be a little wider variety.

Lip-Bu Tan

I will try. I'm not good at it, but.

Eric Veiel

We'll see how you can do. This is going to, we're going to bounce from Intel related to, to, personal here. Okay, best you can, short answer. Describe Intel today in one word?

Lip-Bu Tan

Technology.

Eric Veiel

What's the first piece of technology you ever fell in love with?

Lip-Bu Tan

Quantum.

Eric Veiel

What company outside of tech do you admire the most?

Lip-Bu Tan

I will say Netflix.

Eric Veiel

What's your must read every morning?

Lip-Bu Tan

Very good question. One is the morning, one is the evening. So, the first thing in the morning what I did is meditation.

Eric Veiel

What about the evening.

Lip-Bu Tan

Evening also meditation. But the morning after meditation, and in fact I do my meditation while I'm doing the swimming.

Eric Veiel

Interesting.

Lip-Bu Tan

Every morning I swim.

Eric Veiel

And you can meditate while you swim. That's great. Okay, a couple more. Your favorite guilty indulgence of food. The food that you eat, that you probably shouldn’t.

Lip-Bu Tan

You know, my favorite food is a king of fruit. Durian. You know, the spicy one. You know, a lot of spice. And you open up. It's taste like, the bitter the better. It's a little bit like cheese. You know, they call it the mouse unwound,  Chinese word is the mountain, mountain cat. And that is the most bitter. And I love it.

Eric Veiel

Okay. I've never had it. All right. If you could only do one of the following. Would you play a video game, a card game, or a board game?

Lip-Bu Tan

Card game.

Eric Veiel

And then last one, your favorite science fiction movie?

Lip-Bu Tan

I think Star Wars.

Eric Veiel

All right, that's mine too. Very good. This has been so fun. Thank you so much Lip-Bu. Really appreciate you taking the time to, to spend with us here on The Angle.

Lip-Bu Tan

Thank you so much.

Eric Veiel

Again, I'm Eric Veiel. Thank you for listening to The Angle. We look forward to your company on future episodes. You can find more information about this and other topics on our website. Please rate and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. The Angle. Better questions, better insights. Only from T. Rowe Price.

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