Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger retired on December 1, 2024, leaving CFO David Zinsner and senior executive Michelle Johnston Holthaus to serve as interim co-CEOs. While the board works to identify a permanent successor, Intel faces one of the most significant crises in its history, searching for a qualified leader to navigate both internal instability and mounting external pressures increasingly challenging.
According to PC supply chain insiders, Intel struggles to separate its design and foundry businesses, a move that, even if executed, would leave its foundry operations years away from recovery. Meanwhile, its design division faces fierce competition from AMD, Nvidia, and Qualcomm, creating widespread disruptions across its longstanding global supply chain partnerships.
Taiwan's expansive supply chain—spanning motherboards, PCs, servers, IPC, and IoT—has been significantly disrupted, affecting product development, technical support, chip delivery schedules, and product lifecycle planning. The company, formerly known for its reliable product roadmap, now operates with a loosely defined framework, undermining confidence among its partners.
Leadership vacuum intensifies market challenges
Intel's crisis has deepened in the wake of Gelsinger's departure, leaving the interim co-CEOs and the eventual successor with the formidable task of addressing the company's entrenched structural challenges.
Sources indicate that Gelsinger's departure—perceived by many as involuntary—has destabilized internal morale. Simultaneously, Intel continues to undergo organizational restructuring, with layoffs showing no signs of slowing down.
Gelsinger's exit could stall the development of key products, technologies, and marketing strategies, leaving Intel vulnerable. This creates opportunities for competitors like AMD and Nvidia to capitalize on the situation and further chip away at Intel's PC and server market share.
Supply chain disruption benefits TSMC
Intel's struggles are reverberating through Taiwan's supply chain, with industry experts pointing to unreliable roadmaps and an unstable leadership team. As a result, high-cost or high-risk initiatives face delays or outright cancellations.
Taiwanese manufacturers are revising platform transitions, product designs, and inventory strategies as they await clarity from Intel. IPC and IoT partners—many with longstanding ties to Intel—face heightened uncertainty, further straining the supply chain for PCs, servers, motherboards, and chips.
TSMC has become a major beneficiary of Intel's setbacks, with low 18A process yields forcing Intel to increase its reliance on the Taiwanese foundry. Production of next-generation PC processors, including Meteor Lake and Arrow Lake, is scaling up quarterly and is expected to stay outsourced. Meanwhile, server processors remain under review, with little likelihood of Intel reclaiming outsourced orders.
According to reports from TechPowerUp, Tom's Hardware, and Heise online, TSMC is experiencing a surge in orders as Intel's dependency on its foundry services grows steadily.
