Intel's Direct Connect conference brought together a huge range of industry stakeholders to discuss the semiconductor industry specifically, and the tech industry in general. Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan addressed the audience at the opening keynote, confirming his commitment to improving the company.

“People asking since I've joined if I'm committed to the Foundry.” Lip-Bu Tan said after he took to the stage on April 29, “The answer is yes. I'm committed to making the Intel Foundry successful, and I know there are areas we need to improve.”

“Semiconductors are foundational to our modern society,” Tan explained before revealing a chart, “This will only increase in the world of AI. This is going to be a $1 trillion industry by 2030.”

Lip-Bu Tan seems to share a view common with many tech industry CEOs that a great deal of growth and development in the next few years will be driven by AI. In that area, Tan thinks that Intel has a very important role to play.

“We are the only company that does advanced leading-edge semiconductor R&D and manufacturing in the United States,” Tan said, explaining why he believed Intel was still in a strong position to benefit from the AI market, “We continue to bolster out manufacturing capabilities and we're working to strengthen our position in each of these areas.”

Intel doubtless faces challenges, and Lip-Bu Tan attempts to turn the fortunes of the company around. The degradation issue affecting the 13^th and 14^th Generation Intel CPUs shook customer confidence, and the Intel Arc graphics cards have so far failed to compete on a level footing with Nvidia or AMD, though the latest B-series certainly has a lot to say in the entry-level market.

The keynote pointed towards better efficiency and lower cost, but it might take more than that to get Intel on an even keel again.

About the Author

Rebecca Hills-Duty

Writing and journalism experience at VRFocus, UploadVR, The Escapist, HTC, PC Gamer, Tech Radar+ and Dexerto. Can sometimes be found playing with retro tech.