Intel's Pat Gelsinger is 'right person' for the job: Analyst

Creative Strategies CEO and principal analyst Ben Bajarin joins Asking for a Trend to discuss Intel ( ) CEO Pat Gelsinger's leadership and some catalysts for the company ahead. While many investors have their doubts about CEO Pat Gelsinger, Bajarin says, "I've never doubted Pat's ability to lead this company." He continues, "I think holistically, the timeline and the cost to do so was extremely hard, right? They went through an extremely ambitious undertaking to regain process leadership.

And we'll see if it sounds like they'll do that and we'll see if they do this for product leadership as well." Bajarin explains that producing five new chip production nodes in five years is very difficult and "monumentally expensive." Meanwhile, he notes that the entire industry is facing technological hardships.



"I think having somebody like Pat Gelsinger, who is at his heart a technologist and very good and has a history of solving those technology problems with Intel, is the right person to get over what our technological hurdles going forward as well as some economical ones," he adds. Moving forward, Bajarin sees several catalysts for Intel that investors should keep on their radar. First, he points to the launch of its Lunar Lake-powered laptops as a way the company can regain some product leadership.

These laptops will have better performance per watt and battery life while maintaining a thin design. He also highlights that Intel is committed to prioritizing more wafers for Lunar Lake than they originally intended. In addition, he believes that investors should watch Intel's process leadership.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click to watch this full episode of Asking for a Trend. Video Transcript You know, uh Ben earlier, we had the chance to speak with steel uh applied uh technology analyst, Ruben Roy on whether uh se O bad Pat Gelsinger was really the right man for the job. Ben and just take a listen, what he had to say here.

I think Pat's heart is in the right place. I think he came into a situation that required a lot of heavy lifting and they've done a lot of heavy lifting. There's more to do.

Uh Unfortunately, I think that Pat overestimated the time with which it would take him to kind of complete a large overhaul. So Ben, we, we've spoken to a couple analysts um on the street who cover intel uh recently and asked them whether Gelsinger is the, is the right guy for the job. Um And I, I wouldn't say it was resounding, you know.

Yes. What's your take? Do you, do you think he's the right leader, the right executive and has the right strategy for the chip giant? I I do. I mean, I've never doubted Pat's ability to lead this company.

I think holistically the the timeline and the cost to do so was uh was extremely hard, right? They, they went through an extremely ambitious undertaking to, to regain process leadership and we'll see if, if it sounds like they'll do that and we'll see if they do this for product leadership as well. Um But that, but trying to do four nodes in five years is or sorry, five, no, four years is essentially diff difficult and monumentally expensive. But, but Intel still has very hard technology problems to solve the entire industry.

Does TS MC has hard, hard problems to solve everybody who makes these chips getting beyond two nanometer and below these are hard technology problems. And I think having somebody like Pat Gelsinger who is at his heart, a technologist and very good and has a history of solving those technology problems with Intel is the right person to get over. What are technological hurdles going forward as well as some economics, economical ones.

And I think that sets the stage for, you know, again, a long term opportunity where I think again, we will see two companies at some point in Intel and an Intel foundry, which one of those he then runs, you know, I don't know, I'm not even going to speculate, but I think for where they are right now, he's the right person because of his vision and his ability to overcome technical hurdles being highly technical himself. So real quickly ben you know, a stock higher right now, but it's obviously been under a lot of pressure. I think obviously Intel surprised investors with that financial report last month.

What would you say? Some, some potential catalysts are that investors could have on their, on their radar for Intel near intermediate term here. So I think there's two, there's two things I think looking at Lunar Lake as kind of the flagship launch where you're looking to see um them regain some process or some product leadership, meaning that it's competitive in areas where Intel has not been competitive. Uh in years past obviously, performance per watt having battery life as well as high performance in uh in a product road map that can fit into thin in like laptops and all host of other things.

And obviously, Intel has said they're, they're committing more priority of wafers to Lunar Lake than they originally intended because they do feel it's gonna be a stronger pipe for A IP CS and everything that's going on with a at the edge. So, so I think monitoring that monitoring volumes and then Intel's profitability around shipping more of those products, even though A SP is gonna be a little bit uh hampered because they're making that product with TS MC. But I think I look at that product as the uh as the lens by which we see, do they have product leadership or product parity again? So, so there's one piece and the other is process leadership and that's taking place.

I think when we look at 18 A both from a process standpoint as well as backside Power Gate all around. And I think those are the two bars to see leadership in those two areas. Thank you, Ben.

I always appreciate your time, my friend. Happy to be here..