Former Intel CEO on Nvidia: You have to be 10x better to dethrone the king

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Now that Pat Gelsinger is nary longer occupying the country bureau astatine embattled chipmaker Intel (INTC), helium tin admit 1 happening astir the semiconductor industry.

Nvidia (NVDA) has a wide, wide pb implicit its rivals connected the tech front.

"You see, they are executing good ... At the extremity of the day, [Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang] is connected it, driving his teams to enactment successful beforehand end," the erstwhile Intel CEO told maine connected Yahoo Finance's Opening Bid podcast (video above; perceive successful below)

"They person built meaningful moats astir their franchise," helium added.

Gelsinger led assertive efforts to crook astir Intel for much than 3 years. He slashed thousands of jobs, improved costs, secured CHIPS Act funding, built spot foundries, and promised accelerated AI chips that could vie with Nvidia and AMD (AMD).

He was fired successful aboriginal December amid missed fiscal targets, deficiency of advancement connected the AI spot front, and a currency drain connected the foundry business.

Intel's 4th fourth income fell 7% twelvemonth implicit twelvemonth to $14.3 billion, and nett net plunged 76%. The institution forecasts it volition lone interruption adjacent connected the nett enactment this year.

Analysts deliberation Nvidia whitethorn station upward of $5 per stock successful net successful 2025. Nvidia's banal is up 1,220% implicit the past 5 years, portion Intel's has dropped 69%.

Intel announced Lip-Bu Tan arsenic its caller CEO successful March.

Tan was the CEO of Cadence Design Systems (CDNS) from 2009 to 2021. After serving connected Intel's committee for 2 years, helium near successful August 2024 pursuing clashes with Gelsinger implicit however to presumption the business.

Tan often pushed for a amended artificial quality strategy to instrumentality connected Nvidia and faster determination making astatine the notoriously bureaucratic Intel.

It volition beryllium hard for idiosyncratic to dethrone Nvidia, said Gelsinger.

"I've ever viewed that there's benignant of this 10x rule, wherever if you're not 10x amended than the king, you're not going to displace that. Here you person to beryllium astatine slightest sustainably 10x better, and past radical volition say, okay, yeah, I'm going to spell put successful that," Gelsinger added.

Tan volition get to outline his strategy publically — and item however helium volition navigate Trump tariffs — erstwhile the institution announces archetypal 4th results connected April 24 aft the marketplace close.

You tin present perceive to Intel's net calls unrecorded connected Yahoo Finance. Simply caput to the company's ticker leafage astatine the scheduled commencement clip of 5:00 p.m.

Three times each week, I tract insight-filled conversations and chats with the biggest names successful concern and markets on Opening Bid. You tin find much episodes connected our video hub oregon ticker connected your preferred streaming service.

Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor. Follow Sozzi connected X @BrianSozzi, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Tips connected stories? Email [email protected].