Many great leaders command attention. Lip-bu earns trust. He leads with humility. He listens more than he speaks. And when he does speak, people listen. Most people know Lip-bu Tan today as the CEO of Intel, a company whose innovations helped create the modern computing era and whose future has become one of the most important stories in technology. But I think of Intel as one of the chapters of Lip-bu's storied career. Long before Intel, Lip-bu built an extraordinary career as one of Silicon Valley's most respected venture capitalists through Walden International, investing in entrepreneurs and technologies that would transform industries. Later, as the CEO of Cadence Design Systems, he led one of the most remarkable turnarounds in our industry, transforming the company into a global leader in electronic design automation and helping enable the AI revolution we're experiencing today. I've had the privilege of knowing Lip-bu for many years through the Global Semiconductor Alliance where he served on our board of directors during his time at Cadence and now serves again today as the CEO of Intel. I don't want to spend our time just talking about Intel. I want to understand the journey that shaped the man who was ultimately asked to lead one of the most iconic companies in the world. This is A Bit Personal with Jody.
Lip-bu, welcome to A Bit Personal with Jody. I'm so honored to have you as my first guest of season two.
Yeah, it's going to be fun. I promise it won't be too painful.
So you know, I've had the opportunity of knowing you for many years. I was trying to figure out exactly when we met, but it's been at least 20 years, maybe even longer, sad to say.
And I've had the opportunity to observe you in the boardroom meetings with other CEOs as well as several one-on-ones. And I have a few observations that I would like you to comment on. So, the first one is, I mean, you're a very gentle person, both a gentleman and a gentle person. You're quiet and you're extraordinarily reserved and at the same time you're this big risk taker. You're out there funding companies, running businesses, making a lot of really, really tough decisions. So tell me about that side of Lip-bu that I don't get to see. The competitor, the tough boss, the ruthless operator. Where is that Lip-bu?
I have a twin brother. I'm just joking. Well, I think you know it's just my natural personality, you know, brought up in Asia and you know, tend to be more quiet and then only when I need to speak then I speak and I, you know, make my point if I feel strongly and you know, I just don't need to, you know, just repeat or kind of, you know, show off and but more quiet and then if I see something that I can add value then I will speak out. And then in terms of in business sometime you need to have some tough decision you have to make and you have choices you have to do and so you just have to go with your gut and then with your experience and then you just to address it in a respectful way and so even if I need to fire people, you know, in a lot of time in the being a VC you have to replace some of the team members and you do treat with respect and with caring and so some of the people I had to remove are still friend and in fact they starting to get back to me to be an investor and because they at least they respect my view and I explain why and so they understood the situation so I think you have to deal people with respect and then and then with, you know, it's very important, you know, each one have, we all have mistake, we all have shortcoming. But just do the right thing.
So do you ever get angry? Does anyone ever see that side of you?
I seldom get angry. But I think if something that, you know, people are betray or dishonest and I just have to correct that. And then, you know, I just need to correct the facts and then it's very important to address that and not in the very, you know, the kind of offensive way but at least state the facts and then at least the other side understanding, you know, if there's any misunderstanding we just have to address it in the respectful way and be honest, that's the best way.
Okay. So, you're and this again, I'm sure this is just also part of your personality, but you're very chill, very calm, and you almost always say yes. And maybe at least to me, you always say yes.
You're a good friend, so I had to say yes to you.
And so, I'm just thinking though that, you know, you have to be one of the busiest guys in Silicon Valley. How is it that you get so much out of 24 hours in a day? What's your secret?
Good question. I think, you know, my philosophy, you know, you have breakfast, lunch and dinner and then also you have 24 hours and the God is fair and then give everybody the same amount. I wish I have more 48 hours a day and but you just had to squeeze in to become more effective and one thing good is I have a very, you know, in terms of technology I have a very fast switch. I can switch one topic to the other topic very fast. And even my wife was surprised sometime call coming in at two in the morning. I respond right away to the issue. And it just you can shift from one subject to another subject and very thoroughly. And that's kind of my training. And I think in some ways is a childhood day. I'm the youngest, you know, my mom, you know, my brother and sister are very disciplined they had to perform the best, you know, they have to get all the awards and then they have to, you know, the violin or piano to become performing, you know, meanwhile have to keep the academic in all A's and then the youngest one you can get away with it. And my mom is kind of tired. He let me do whatever I want. And in some ways kind of I built some hobby and like for example many people doesn't know I have more than 100 fighting fish. And then I rank them every day and then so in the way you kind of each one have a name and then and then keep growing and changing and so in the way, you know, my mind I can do thing very fast and from one thing to the others and I'm very good with numbers and people just can't lie with the number with me and so I think with that is kind of my training and so that, you know, I thanks my mom to give me the freedom to do it.
Okay. So, let's talk about that because before you were the Lip-bu Tan of the CEO of Intel or before Cadence or before any of your VC days, you were just a little boy in Malaysia. So, let's go back to that time period in your life. And so, what kind of memories can you conjure up about what the Tan household was like? I mean, what were the smells? Were there music playing in the background? Was your mom home when you came home from school? Tell us what it was like.
Well, I have one older brothers and three older sister. I'm the youngest. And they are very high achiever. And then my brother is a Rhodes scholar and a heart surgeon and the PhD and he do artificial heart and my sister is professor at Harvard. So they are all very achiever achievement and one not beside just academic he's a, you know, is a concert performer and so in some way I grown up in that the youngest I think you just do what you like to do and so you don't have to compete with them so in some way I feel very comfortable to be the underdog and then be the youngest and then the naughty one that they all call me and so in some way, you know, it's very comfortable for me but it's a lot of pressure and to perform and my mom is very strict like tiger mom even I didn't finish my PhD he sent my brother to check me out and why is he not finished a PhD and so in a way it's kind of a it's a nice family and we are very competitive and meanwhile some of us are very close to each other.
So your parents must have set the expectations very high. I mean, how people want to know the secret to your mom's success in raising such amazing children.
Yes, she is very disciplined and then he make sure that we finish all our plates empty before you can leave the table. So I still have that kind of a discipline and so I think, you know, it's good to have that kind of background that is a very disciplined. So we kind of have that culture of, you know, do thing right and then focus on what you assign you finish before you go to next things and so focus and the discipline and determinations of getting things done is part of our culture.
Okay. So it must have been a very musical family if you have performers. So was there always music playing in your house?
Yes. And, you know, sometime, you know, I still initially I was a little bit annoyed, you know, when you try to do homework and then my sister playing piano and somehow always stuck in that particular notes and then the other sister is singing opera, you know, singing and then it's just a lot of music and then in some way I kind of missing that I wish I finished my piano lesson but I was so interested in spider in fishing and basketball volleyball with my hobby and my mom let me do that and so in some way I'm very grateful for that freedom and then meanwhile, you know, music become very important in our life and that's why even though I cannot play and I on the board of San Francisco opera for many years and we are still a big fan of opera and then and music and then so music is part of our life.
So are all of your siblings now in the US?
Uh, one is in Cambridge, UK and then the others all in US. Yes.
Okay. So was it always the goal for your mother to have you all come to the US or to leave Malaysia?
No, I think it just encouraged us to pursue our interest. Especially his educations and she's very few very strong and then so each one of us pursue our interest and then, you know, my brother originate physics then he enrolled to become a heart specialist and then heart surgeon so we each one pursue our own different things and then I decided not to be under my older brother's, you know, shadow and then sometime is in the college my professor the valuable you're great and but your brother is better and so I don't like to stay in that path of always compared to my brother so I decided not to go to UK I went to US and then I want to do something completely different that's why I pursue nuclear engineering and then I thought energy is bigger problem solving a problem and then rather than follow him on the medical field and so my older sister also move into medical marine biologies and so we all pick different area that we can really strong and my the sister that closest to me, you know, she's languages linguistic he can speak fluent 15 languages and it's very amazing he's closest to me and so I think age wise and also hobbywise and so we kind of we all find our own way and then quite independent.
So what would your siblings tell me that I would be surprised about you?
Well, I think initially they think that mom give me so much freedom. So this one is a naughty boy. Now when they were so young they really like me and but later on they felt that, you know, this boy is a naughty boy and mom gave him so much freedom and but over time and we become, you know, more respectful and then usually in Chinese community the older sibling like brother and sister they take care of the grand father and mother when they get old and now that I take care even though I'm the youngest so in some way I think they they didn't expect me and I didn't finish my PhD and they thought that you going to be just another goofing off kids and but surprised them I'm doing quite well in my area and then they starting to become much closer to me and be respectful of me.
Did you have your parents move over here to live with you?
I invite them to come over. They join me.
Okay. Turned out to be wonderful for our grandkids.
So, tell me about leaving Malaysia. So, you were 19, you left to come to America. It sounds like maybe your siblings maybe had already, you know, paved the way for you. But that it must have been a scary time or was it exciting? I mean, you even got more freedom if you could come over to America and leave home. So, what was that journey like?
In some way it's not that difficult because my brother went to Cambridge, London and then my three sister they all came to US and so it's kind of natural, you know, the youngest one also come and follow them and then in some way I applying for MIT I apply Stanford Berkeley MIT in a few school surprisingly Berkeley and Stanford they turn me down but MIT accept me and in fact my sister actually helped and the brother-in-law helped me to write my essay and then and then do all the application for me and so in some way being younger sometime, you know, older brother and sister they like to have you come along and so I'm turned out to be very lucky to able to come here and to me it's very exciting it's natural because they all come up here either here or London or UK so it's kind of natural I to do that rather than stay in Singapore and I thought the energy is a bigger challenge so I decided to even though I have a offer to double E but I thought energy is a problem and I think I'm 30 years ahead of schedule now energy is a big problem and so I thought that nuclear engineering is a way to go and so I, you know, pick MIT for my nuclear engine graduate school.
You know, I remember when I found out that you were a nuclear engineer here. It was in 2011 at a GSA board meeting and the Japan earthquake had just happened and there were obviously damages to some of their nuclear facilities and we were discussing it in the board meeting. You said let me tell you what I know because I'm a nuclear engineer and I was like of course he's a nuclear engineer. It's like, you know, did you do this in your spare time almost?
In fact, MIT tried to ask me because I'm on their advisory board and CEO advisory board. They ask me, I think you finish all the courses. Why don't you just come and do pick a thesis, we finish it up so that you can get it done. I told him that I'm too old for that. And so they just say, well, in that case, we get you to be on the advisory board and helping us.
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So how does a nuclear engineer get into semiconductors?
It's very interesting to be candid with you because my mom and dad sent my brother and sister to the English stream and my mother decided, you know, for the youngest one they should learn Mandarin and so I was in the tiny school. So he she always regrets that well sorry that your English is not that good compared to your brother and sister but I said no and it turned out that it's very helpful for me to do business in Asia in Singapore in Taiwan in China and so always a handicap because of my language to be candid with you the first master is MIT I don't think I going to make it because the professor have such a strong accent. I have not I don't pick up any words and then I also make a mistake and then every equation I try to derive it go to library to derive because physic training and finally one of the professor Liu you don't have to derive every equation you just apply it and so finally I managed to get through so to be candid with you I have three job at MIT one I doing my thesis for no scholarship secondly I have a professor that dean he gave me he pity me so he said Liu I think you're very good computer and good with mathematics why don't you work on my project I pay you so I got that and then I also have a scholarship from Singapore so I have three checks and then when the bursar find out that I have three check they complain that every student only get one check. How can you got three checks? It must be something wrong. So you report find out that later on, you know, they justify for me that I working with one professor and then the thesis professor I supposed to finish the PhD with him. I help him to write the proposal to get the funding. So he did receive the funding. So he have unfortunately he had to pay me to do that. So long story short, that's how I learned how to do three, four things at the same time.
I was going to say even at MIT. Okay. So were you disappointed you didn't get in Berkeley and Stanford? I mean you think your life would be different?
