Las Vegas, NV
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Intel, recent off a historic funding from the Trump administration, has a plan to radically reshape the corporate’s technique.
And if you happen to suppose it includes AI… You’re proper.
Once the dominant participant in chips, Intel has struggled to keep pace with rivals over the previous decade, ceding floor to Qualcomm and Nvidia in essential areas like cellular and AI. And whereas Intel continues to be the highest maker of laptop computer and desktop chips, it’s going through elevated competitors from rivals.
Under CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who took the helm final March, the corporate has a brand new turnaround plan. And it relies upon in half on the newly introduced Core Ultra Series 3 chip, which might be in virtually each main new laptop computer this 12 months.
But Intel is aware of it must embed its chips in greater than laptops to catch up – and probably get ahead – in AI. That’s why its new chips may also energy units like robots as the following main space of development for AI, Jim Johnson, head of Intel’s consumer computing group, stated in an interview on the CES tech convention in Las Vegas this week.
“The devices between PCs and the cloud are almost infinite,” he stated simply after the corporate launched its new chip.
Intel continues to be the highest PC chipmaker by a big margin. The International Data Corporation reported that Intel accounted for greater than 71% of the market in 2024 (it hasn’t printed full-year knowledge for 2025 but).
But it’s going through elevated competitors from AMD, and Apple shifted away from utilizing Intel’s chips in its MacBooks in favor of its personal processors in 2020. Intel additionally cut 15% of its staff final 12 months, and shares (INTC) are down greater than 18% over the previous 5 years.
Intel needs the brand new chip to bolster its core PC enterprise in two methods: first, by enhancing non-AI qualities that PC consumers search for, like battery life; and second, by boosting efficiency for the methods individuals now use AI. That consists of coding brokers or video-conferencing apps like Zoom that use AI to enhance name high quality. The firm says the brand new chip will energy greater than 200 new PC designs.
There’s no one-size-fits-all for shoppers’ AI wants, Johnson stated. “It’s like, what does a reporter need that may be different than what a gamer wants?”
But Intel’s rivals are shifting equally as quick.
AMD introduced new chips at CES that may course of bigger AI fashions on laptops with out having to depend on the cloud for processing, boosting privateness and decreasing lag. Qualcomm, a comparatively small participant in the PC market, has additionally been pushing extra deeply into the laptop computer area; it introduced a brand new laptop computer chip at CES that it claims will provide multi-day battery life and is optimized for AI duties.
Intel may also should keep away from repeating its strategic missteps. That includes extra than simply determining what individuals need from their PCs; it additionally means making chips quick sufficient to maintain up with, or surpass, rivals.
Tan is engaged on that, in keeping with Johnson, who experiences to him immediately.
In certainly one of their first one-on-one conferences, Tan inspired Johnson to textual content him if prospects had been sad.
“(Tan) wants to know good news, bad news, problems, plans,” Johnson stated.
Like different main chipmakers, Intel is betting on rising applied sciences like humanoid robots for future development. And it’s making some progress.
Oversonic Robotics, an organization that makes humanoid robots for healthcare and different industries, plans to modify from Nvidia to Intel’s Core Ultra 3 chip to energy its robots.
Costs had been decrease total and efficiency was sooner since Intel’s chips don’t have to connect with cloud servers to course of requests, in keeping with Intel spokesperson Nina Mehlhaf. (Oversonic Robotics nonetheless makes use of Nvidia’s tech to coach its AI fashions, nonetheless.)
But Nvidia’s chips stay the beating coronary heart of information facilities powering AI providers, thrusting it to the forefront of the AI growth and briefly making it the world’s first $5 trillion public company. Robots are a significant a part of Nvidia’s efforts. It introduced new AI fashions for use in robotics and showcased how its tech is powering robots in healthcare and different industries at CES.
Still, the demand for humanoid robots is unclear. Bill Ray, an analyst following rising applied sciences and robotics for market analysis agency Gartner, stated deployments of humanoid robots are scarce, they usually nonetheless face too many technical and bodily limitations to be sensible.
But Johnson stays optimistic about Intel’s route, and Wall Street appears to agree. Intel shares gained roughly 84% in 2025 and are up roughly 98% year-over-year. The US authorities took a roughly 10% stake in Intel final 12 months, probably giving buyers some assurance about Intel’s future.
“I see Intel getting back in shape like it used to be,” Johnson stated.
NCS’s John Towfighi contributed to this report.