To our stockholders, customers, partners, and employees:
When I joined Intel at the age of 18, I could not have imagined that I would one day have the honor of becoming CEO of this iconic company. After a 30-year journey inspired by the leadership of Gordon Moore, Robert Noyce, and Andy Grove, and then a decade away, I have returned to Intel with great excitement and passion to take on my dream job. For the last eight years, I was CEO of VMware, where I had the privilege of re-imagining an enterprise software pioneer and leading it to new heights. I gained valuable insights along the way, but my experience at Intel has always been foundational to my thinking and close to my heart.
I take on this job humbled by the challenges and excited by the limitless opportunities. Digital technology is transforming the world at an accelerated pace, driven by what I call the four key “superpowers”: cloud, mobility fueled by 5G, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, and the intelligent edge. They are superpowers because each expands the impact of the others and together, they are reshaping every aspect of our lives and work. This goes straight to Intel’s purpose and my own passion: creating technology that touches and enriches the lives of every person on earth.
These superpowers are also reshaping the business of silicon innovation. In this evolving landscape, Intel is the only company that has the depth and breadth of intelligent silicon, platform, software, architecture, design, manufacturing, and scale that our customers need to capitalize on these opportunities and fuel their next-generation innovations.
This was underscored in 2020 as Intel delivered another year of record financial results, while navigating the impacts of a global pandemic. This is a testament to my predecessor Bob Swan’s leadership. He laid the foundation for the company’s transformation in three key areas, including our expansion beyond silicon to platforms as well as an evolution of the integrated device manufacturer (IDM) model, setting the stage for our new IDM 2.0 vision. He broadened our focus from central processing units (CPUs) to a full portfolio of xPUs, where CPUs remain the center of our business, but we also now deliver graphics processing units (GPUs) and other special-purpose accelerators for AI, machine learning, and 5G.
Intel is the only company that has the depth and breadth of intelligent silicon, platform, software, architecture, design, manufacturing, and scale that our customers need to capitalize on these opportunities and fuel their next-generation innovations.
While we are operating from a position of progress and financial strength, we have a great deal of work ahead of us. Since I returned to Intel, our customers, partners, and employees have given me direct and honest feedback about what Intel does well and where we must do better. They continue to see Intel as essential to solving problems at scale, safeguarding the technology infrastructure, and securing the global semiconductor supply chain. They also know that we must once again lead in execution and innovation, with a predictable roadmap of leadership silicon.
I am confident that Intel can be the world’s leading semiconductor company and set a course for a new era of innovation and technological leadership in this landscape of tremendous change. We may look different from our past in many respects, but we will always remain dedicated to excellence in engineering innovation and execution. I have four priorities that will fortify our leadership position:
Be the leader in every category in which we compete.
We have a strong product roadmap that highlights the power of integrated design and manufacturing to create truly differentiated products. We are well-positioned to lead the industry, building on our CPU leadership with a diverse xPU portfolio and deep customer collaboration. But we must move faster to outpace the competition where we are the established leader, take share in adjacent segments where they are strong, and learn and capitalize on new opportunities more quickly with data and analysis driving decision making.
Execute flawlessly to our commitments.
We must demonstrate that customers can rely on Intel for their products and their strategies for the future. We will continue to ramp our portfolio on the Intel 10nm high-volume manufacturing process in 2021 in Oregon, Arizona, and Israel. We will deliver with quality and scale our Intel 7nm process and invest in future manufacturing leadership. We will also leverage our foundry and supplier ecosystem as part of our agile IDM 2.0 model that customers can rely on for the greatest innovations in the industry, delivered with agility and at scale.
Passionately innovate with boldness and speed.
We will be a source of continuous innovation through world-leading engineering, leading process technology, and research into next-generation computing architectures. We will lead in new chip designs and technologies that accelerate our customers’ high-value workloads in the cloud, at the edge, and on the client. We will continue to pursue radical areas to innovate as every aspect of the world and humanity comes online and creates more opportunities for us to transform digital technology. We must outpace anything our competitors—or customers—can build.
Reignite our culture to attract and motivate the best engineers and technologists on the planet.
Intel must be where the best talent in the world can fulfill their dreams, contributing and inventing at a scale that touches the lives of every person on earth. We need to untether our enormous energy and potential for our business with a vibrant, inclusive, and open culture. We need to bring back key aspects of the “Grove-ian” discipline for direct, transparent, and data-driven decisions and accountability. This will unlock enormous energy and potential for our business.
We will help solve the world’s greatest challenges through deep technical collaboration with our customers, helping them transform their industries with radical innovation and leadership products.
In addition to positioning Intel for success in a new era, these priorities serve a higher purpose. We will help solve the world’s greatest challenges through deep technical collaboration with our customers, helping them transform their industries with radical innovation and leadership products. Along with customers, partners, governments, and NGOs we will support smart policies that accelerate the creation of safe and secure digital infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, and a workforce of the future. We will work with government partners to ensure the integrity and resilience of our global supply chain, and ensure Intel is the source and the enabler of U.S. technology leadership that fuels a global ecosystem. And we will remain steadfast in our commitment to achieve Intel’s 2030 global challenges focused on positive impact in responsibility, inclusivity, and sustainability.
I am thrilled to lead Intel during a critical time of change and vast opportunity to shape the future of our industry and the world. I look forward to working with our extraordinarily talented Intel team and our industry partners around the world to create and deliver leadership products, powerful platforms, and breakthrough technologies to our customers around the world.
I believe deeply in this company and the powerful future we will create together. Our best days are in front of us.
Pat Gelsinger, CEO
Intel Corporation
March 2, 2021