Intel CEO Tan Lip-Bu dogged by decades of China chip investing, board work

For more than three decades, Mr Tan Lip-Bu invested in the Chinese economic boom, placing the kinds of no-brainer bets that enriched venture capitalists and fund managers around the world and across the US.

He set up a venture firm called Walden International based in San Francisco that pumped more than US$5 billion (S$6.4 billion) into over 600 companies.

More than 100 of those investments were made in China, including deals with once-obscure start-ups such as Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC) – today China’s largest chipmaker – where he served on the board for a decade and a half.

In recent years, as US-China tensions escalated, Washington increasingly restricted Beijing’s access to advanced technology and placed tighter limits on the ability of US companies to do business there.

And Mr Tan’s efforts to distance himself from Chinese investments accelerated with his appointment as chief executive officer of Intel in March, when he agreed to divest his holdings there, according to a person familiar with the arrangement.

That has not stopped US lawmakers – and, now, US President Donald Trump – from holding Mr Tan’s past Chinese affiliations against him. Mr Trump called the executive “highly conflicted” in a social media post and

urged him to resign

.

Intel has responded that Mr Tan and the board are “deeply committed to advancing US national and economic security interests” and said they would further engage with the administration. 

Here is what we know about Mr Tan’s business dealings in China. 

Walden

He started work at a venture capital firm in the 1980s called Walden Ventures, where he helped create a spin-off named Walden International that focused on overseas opportunities.

Mr Tan, who was born in Malaysia and speaks Mandarin, helped the company make investments all over East Asia, including China.

He pushed some of Walden’s funds into the then unfashionable area of chip investing. Most venture capitalists had moved away from the industry, figuring that it was impossible to challenge giants such as Intel with start-up money.

But Mr Tan played those odds.

Today, the executive is still chairman of Walden International. And he is the founding managing partner at Walden Catalyst Ventures, which focuses on investments in the US, Europe and Israel. He also serves in that role at another venture fund, Celesta Global Capital. 

Mr Tan and Walden have faced scrutiny for China-related investments before. In 2023, the House Select Committee on the Communist Party of China sent Walden a letter expressing concerns and seeking more information on the types of companies and amount of investments it made there.

SMIC

Headquartered in Shanghai, SMIC was founded in 2000 as an early attempt to bring advanced chipmaking to China. 

Walden International was one of the big investors when the start-up raised US$630 million from a group of venture firms in 2003.

Mr Tan was a director on SMIC’s board until 2018. 

The Chinese company, whose customers at one time included Qualcomm, is attempting to break into the outsourced chip production business dominated by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. 

In 2020, that effort took a serious blow when the US Commerce Department put SMIC on the so-called entity list, citing ties with the Chinese military.

That means businesses need licences to supply the Chinese company with technology.

The move effectively cut it off from crucial US vendors. Today, it is a key partner to major Chinese sector players including Huawei Technologies.

Cadence

Mr Tan stepped out of the venture world and joined the chip industry full time when he became interim head of San Jose, California-based Cadence Design Systems in 2008.

The executive, who had previously served on the board, went on to take the permanent CEO job the next year.

He stayed in the role until 2021, when he transitioned to executive chairman, and is widely credited with restoring the company’s fortunes. 

In late July 2025, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a plea deal that cost Cadence more than US$100 million in fines.

Employees at Cadence’s China unit allegedly hid the name of a customer – the National University of Defence Technology – from internal compliance in order to keep supplying it. That organisation had been put on the Department of Commerce’s blacklist in 2015.

The Chinese university was one of a group of supercomputer operators there that had conducted simulations of nuclear explosions, the DOJ said.

Cadence got a 20 per cent reduction of the statutory maximum fine because of its partial cooperation with the investigation, according to the DOJ’s statement, which did not mention Mr Tan.

Still, his connection to the company was cited this week by US Senator Tom Cotton, who wrote to Intel chairman Frank Yeary questioning whether what happened at Cadence under Mr Tan’s tenure makes him fit for his current job. 

Current status

Mr Tan has spent time on the boards of other Chinese companies, such as Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment. But he does not, according to Bloomberg data, currently serve on a board of any company based in that country.

Though Walden International has invested in more than 100 Chinese companies over the years, that involvement has been scaled back, according to PitchBook.

Walden International, Walden Catalyst Ventures and Celesta now just have stakes in a handful of companies based in China, including Hong Kong, the site shows. BLOOMBERG