Under Lip-Bu Tan's leadership, Intel's stock has tripled, driven by relationships with Trump, Musk, and Apple, even as the company continues to require improvements in its manufacturing execution.

      **Summary**: Intel’s stock has tripled under Lip-Bu Tan’s leadership, who has gained support from Trump, formed a partnership with Musk, and piqued Apple’s interest. The critical question remains whether these relationships can lead to the manufacturing success that has eluded Intel for the past decade.

      In the past twelve months, Intel’s stock has surged threefold, yet the CEO has not communicated a clear plan to most of his employees. Lip-Bu Tan, who assumed the CEO role in March 2025, has spent his initial fourteen months establishing external partnerships instead of restructuring internally. He has successfully engaged Trump, partnered with Musk, gained interest from Apple, and made the U.S. government Intel’s third-largest shareholder. In April, the stock soared, achieving a record 24 percent increase in a single day and a total rise of 114 percent for the month, marking Intel’s best performance on Nasdaq in its 55-year history.

      The pivotal concern is whether these relationships will translate into effective manufacturing, something Intel has struggled with for a decade. Over a dozen current and former employees reported to Bloomberg that Tan has not adequately detailed his specific plans to improve products and manufacturing. Key challenges persist: Intel must develop competitive products to regain lost market share and enhance manufacturing capabilities sufficient to entice rivals to invest significantly. Neither of these goals is assured.

      In August 2025, the U.S. government invested $8.9 billion in Intel, obtaining a 9.9 percent stake at $20.47 per share, which now has an estimated worth of around $36 billion. This deal combined CHIPS Act grants with funding for a secure chip program, making the federal government a significant Intel stakeholder. The investment followed a White House meeting where Tan transformed a public dispute with Trump into an agreement, reportedly seeking endorsements from figures like Michael Dell.

      The collaboration with Musk’s SpaceX, xAI, and Tesla on the Terafab project aims to establish a large chip manufacturing complex in Texas, starting with an investment of $55 billion and potentially costing a total of $119 billion. This partnership emerged from Tan's ongoing dialogue with Musk and surprised many within Intel. Tesla intends to utilize Intel’s upcoming 14A manufacturing technology, with xAI's AI5 chip being among the first targets for production at the facility.

      Apple is exploring opportunities with Intel and Samsung to produce its key device chips domestically, a move that would be groundbreaking for Intel's foundry business if negotiations advance past the preliminary stages. Currently, Apple sources nearly all of its processors from TSMC in Taiwan, and any diversification would be a significant endorsement of Intel’s manufacturing aspirations since Tan's appointment.

      In his inaugural interview as CEO, Tan acknowledged the company's external focus, asserting that "Intel has the technology, talent, and scale to lead again, but leadership is earned through execution.” He aims to finalize the hiring of a reliable internal leadership team by the end of June.

      The execution challenge is substantial. New Street Research indicates that Intel’s chip production cost is nearly three times that of TSMC, the industry leader. A significant portion of this disparity—over 40 percent—relates to yield, or the percentage of usable chips produced, with Intel achieving around a 65 percent yield rate compared to TSMC's over 80 percent. Only 8 percent of the cost difference is due to higher labor costs in the U.S.

      Intel's 18A manufacturing technology, crucial for the company’s foundry prospects, is progressing but still lacks competitiveness. The company is betting on its Computex 2026 lineup that revolves around 18A, inclusive of Panther Lake mobile chips and 288-core Clearwater Forest server processors; however, yields are not expected to reach industry standards until 2027. In its most recent quarter, Intel failed to meet demand partly due to inadequate production capacity for increasing data center chip orders.

      Naga Chandrasekaran, who has overseen Intel’s factory operations for nearly two years after coming from Micron, stated that one of his key objectives is to win back Intel’s own product teams, which currently outsource critical chip production to TSMC. However, regaining internal demand alone will not be enough. He noted, "Intel products alone, even in a wildly successful scenario, cannot fund the capital and filling the fabs and the scale that’s needed to be successful enough in a silicon business today."

      This level of openness is unusual from a company that previously downplayed its decline under former leadership. Pat Gelsinger, Tan’s predecessor, refrained from framing three years of losses and a 33 percent revenue drop from the 2021 peak in dire terms, as noted by Chandrasekaran.

      The company’s internal culture, according to Kevork Kechichian, whom Tan appointed to lead Intel's server chip division after a stint at Qualcomm and Arm, has become accustomed to schedule delays. When teams lagged behind by a few weeks