Recently, with Intel appointing Lip-Bu Tan (Chinese name Chen Liwu, 65), former CEO of Cadence, as its new leader, Chinese media have focused on the fact that leaders of all four major U.S. semiconductor companies are now of Chinese descent. As the U.S. and China engage in fierce hegemony battles in advanced technology fields such as artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing, there is growing interest in whether these Chinese CEOs could become a variable in this competition.
On March 14, Chinese local media such as Kechuangban Ribao and Zailianshe reported in detail on the backgrounds and characteristics of the CEOs of Intel, NVIDIA, AMD, and Broadcom, noting that they are all of Chinese descent. One local media outlet stated, “Intel has appointed a CEO who knows the Chinese semiconductor market best,” and evaluated that “while China’s semiconductor industry, developed with government policy support, lacks in attracting high-level talent and innovation, the U.S. has achieved technological advancement with a focus on practical innovation and a culture of tolerating failure.”
In fact, Tan, who was appointed as Intel’s new leader on March 12 (local time), was born into a Chinese family in Malaysia and grew up in Singapore. After majoring in physics at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, he moved to the U.S. in 1978 to earn a master’s degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He has been brought in as a relief pitcher following CEO Pat Gelsinger as Intel faces severe management difficulties.
Jensen Huang (Chinese name Huang Renxun, 62), CEO of NVIDIA, a leader in the AI semiconductor industry, is a Taiwanese American. After obtaining a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University in the U.S., Huang founded NVIDIA in 1993.
Lisa Su (Chinese name Su Zifeng, 56), CEO of AMD, which has emerged as a rival to NVIDIA, is also from the Tainan region in southern Taiwan, like Jensen Huang. Su moved to the U.S. with her family at the age of three, graduated from MIT, and joined AMD in 2012. She has been a long-serving CEO since 2014.
Hock Tan (Chinese name Chen Fuyang, 72), CEO of Broadcom, another competitor of NVIDIA, is a Chinese American born in Malaysia.
TSMC, which is collaborating with NVIDIA and AMD to acquire Intel’s foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) shares, is a Taiwanese company. Founded as a public enterprise in 1987, it has grown into the world’s largest foundry company.
Among the world’s largest fabless (semiconductor design) companies, Qualcomm, which is sometimes included instead of Broadcom in the U.S. top four semiconductor firms, has a CEO, Cristiano Amon, who is from Brazil.
