Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan loses $5 million on his $25 million Intel investment as stock tumbles

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Tariffs are hitting companies hard.

Lip-Bu Tan, chief executive of Intel
(Image credit: Intel)

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan is projected to have lost around $5.28 million in value as the company’s shares took a tumble alongside the rest of the market. When Mr. Tan took the reins of the chip giant in March 2025, he needed to purchase $25 million of Intel stock to make him eligible for the nearly $68 million in bonuses. The stock price around this time was $23.96, allowing him to buy 1,043,406 shares. However, Intel’s stock price at the time of writing is $18.90, putting the value of Mr. Tan’s investments at less than $20 million.

The board likely required Lip-Bu Tan to purchase this stock to ensure he’s invested in the company's performance, which is tied to his results as its chief executive. However, this recent drop has nothing to do with his performance, as he has only been on the job for around one month. Instead, this dip is part of the market chaos brought on by Trump’s tariffs, with Intel and many other chip companies hitting record lows.

Some analysts wonder if Tan will purchase more Intel stock at this low price or if the company will launch a stock buyback plan to help reverse this trend. After all, Broadcom just announced a $10 billion stock buyback plan, which helped its stock price go up by 3%. The fabless chip maker said it made this move because it was confident in its products and services despite the ongoing upheaval in the American economy.

It’s unlikely that cash-strapped Intel will copy this strategy, though. The company’s finances have reached the point that its former CEO was frustrated with the delays in releasing its CHIPS Act funding. Aside from that, it would be better for the company to focus on its 18A process node, which has already entered risk production, instead of playing with its stock price.

The $5 million reduction in value might seem like a significant sum, but CCN estimates that the Intel CEO is worth at least $593.2 million, which is just a drop in the bucket for him. Furthermore, anyone invested in the market, in general, will likely see a similar drop in the percentage. We’ll have to wait and see how the tariffs will play out before we can truly determine if Mr. Tan lost a lot of money today, but hopefully, Intel and the rest of the industry will be able to bounce back from this chaos.

Jowi Morales
Jowi Morales
Contributing Writer

Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.

17 Comments Comment from the forums
  • logainofhades
    And we are supposed to care why? The stock market is already rallying, as of yesterday, thanks to the news of Japan and South Korea are looking to negotiate on tariffs. Intel, at the time of this post, is up 2.21%. I think he will be fine.
    Reply
  • derekullo
    logainofhades said:
    And we are supposed to care why? The stock market is already rallying, as of yesterday, thanks to the news of Japan and South Korea are looking to negotiate on tariffs. Intel, at the time of this post, is up 2.21%. I think he will be fine.
    Careful with the T word or you might get labeled as political !
    Reply
  • logainofhades
    baboma said:
    >The stock market is already rallying, as of yesterday, thanks to the news of Japan and South Korea are looking to negotiate on tariffs.

    Yesterday's is already old news. You might want to look at *TODAY'S* markets. Things move fast in trade war land.

    BTW, the market did NOT rally yesterday. Not after the US escalation. And it won't today, after China's return fire.

    Yes, things do move fast. S&P 500 and Nasdaq are slightly up today, and DOW is slightly down. Everyone getting in a tizzy over what is really a market correction is nauseating. Too many focused on short term vs long term. As more countries get on board with negotiating trade deals, the markets will rebound.

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/now-p-500-experienced-correction-130000796.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAGtbshseDUHr8CR1b4LygIXcG7-79kppFgGtrmWyVYmM3g3LEjxz5hhj1DMnQh8N0aPN_BfVMo9bN561K4cmFEWq-xxfbJ3G5URldPdw5VrrndPFQP5Q4kmH_BKDo35RYdvPAeKrQQBLyS-LulHeQBXmjOTKok-jH5E0xNVoCicK
    Reply
  • Reverend_Clint
    I remember hearing Intel employees talk about how worthless the stock was back in 2022.
    Reply
  • DS426
    baboma said:
    ...

    >Everyone getting in a tizzy over what is really a market correction is nauseating.

    I agree. It's nauseating that people are getting in a tizzy over the collapse of their life savings. Everybody should just "BE COOL!" and suck it up. It's only money.
    Collapse of life savings when looking at one point in time? That's pretty dramatic.

    There's going to be no life savings for anyone when the U.S. defaults on our federal debt interest expense and can't continue borrowing to fund the government, not to mention the loss of confidence from other countries.

    So yes, as has been said, folks need to calm down. Calmer heads always do prevail. Mr. Tan will get his $5 mil back and then more if Intel pulls off a win on 18A.
    Reply
  • Syntaximus
    logainofhades said:
    Yes, things do move fast. S&P 500 and Nasdaq are slightly up today, and DOW is slightly down. Everyone getting in a tizzy over what is really a market correction is nauseating. Too many focused on short term vs long term. As more countries get on board with negotiating trade deals, the markets will rebound.

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/now-p-500-experienced-correction-130000796.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAGtbshseDUHr8CR1b4LygIXcG7-79kppFgGtrmWyVYmM3g3LEjxz5hhj1DMnQh8N0aPN_BfVMo9bN561K4cmFEWq-xxfbJ3G5URldPdw5VrrndPFQP5Q4kmH_BKDo35RYdvPAeKrQQBLyS-LulHeQBXmjOTKok-jH5E0xNVoCicK

    If this was done right, we'd have planned for the tariffs we wanted to enact first.
    That allows businesses / industries to make necessary adjustments ahead of time.

    It takes years to setup new factories and make changes in a large supply chain.
    That is why Fortune 500 CEOs are freaking out, and economists are too.

    With tariffs going on/off like a light switch they will adopt wait and see approaches until things stabilize.
    Reply
  • logainofhades
    They are just a negotiating tactic. I highly doubt many of them will be permanent. Last I've heard at least 50 countries have at least expressed interest in negotiating new trade deals.

    March's jobs reports gives me some hope too, as estimates were beaten by quite a bit. All the new potential factories you mentioned, also means more good paying construction jobs. Those matter more than some rich CEO's bank account. If anything more people with good paying jobs, will mean more money long term for said CEO's, as people will be able to more easily afford things.
    Reply
  • acadia11
    He hasn’t lost anything because he didn’t sell anything. Come on this article is disingenuous. Did you lose 10% of your home price because the average home price has dropped since last summer?
    Reply
  • Notton
    Stock market's are a vibes based casino.
    Current vibes: uncertainty, poor confidence

    If the market had good vibes, them stocks wouldn't be tumbling.
    And using preemptive tariffs as a negotiating tactic before coming to the table loses trust.
    That's like taking hostages first and then demanding stuff.
    Reply
  • acadia11
    logainofhades said:
    They are just a negotiating tactic. I highly doubt many of them will be permanent. Last I've heard at least 50 countries have at least expressed interest in negotiating new trade deals.

    March's jobs reports gives me some hope too, as estimates were beaten by quite a bit. All the new potential factories you mentioned, also means more good paying construction jobs. Those matter more than some rich CEO's bank account. If anything more people with good paying jobs, will mean more money long term for said CEO's, as people will be able to more easily afford things.
    The market is illusionary this is not issue. The issue is the potential economic downturn which would be a clear man made situation not that others aren’t and very real. Let’s be real Americans love their cheap goods and if you think we are going to become the manufacturing hub we were in the 50s after WW2 and the rest of the world was rebuilding you are a fool. Our standard of living is too high for this to be sustainable and trying to produce mass goods of mature technologies makes no economic sense at scale. American leadership and economic power is in emerging technologies and earth resources and projection of power. With that said globalization is here get over it and trying and be nativist is a recipe for irrelevance. Either you adapt or you get replaced simple as that. Fight nature all you want.

    A tariff war makes no sense in an interconnected world, maybe we should bring back feudalism again heck maybe the US is still pissed about the war of 1812. All that said volatile markets and big swings are golden opportunities. But the threat of global recession is very real and in fact even enough disruption or trade deals that are protectionist and can not be implemented in near team but create near terms penalties also add to this possibility.
    Reply