Intel's vacant CEO spot rumored to be filled by Tom Caulfield — abrupt GlobalFoundries shakeup sparks speculation

Thomas Caulfield
(Image credit: GlobalFoundries)

In a surprising move, GlobalFoundries this week announced that Dr. Thomas Caulfield had been appointed executive chairman, while Tim Breen will become the new CEO, succeeding Caulfield, effective April 28, 2025. While leadership transitions happen occasionally, the Internet rumor mill (Reddit) reacted by speculating that Caulfield, who has been rumored to be a potential replacement for Pat Gelsinger,  could become the next chief executive at Intel. The rumor mill also points to recent highly irregular trade activities in Intel stock as a sign that Caulfield is headed to Intel. 

Before Thomas Caulfield became chief executive of GlobalFoundries in 2018, he was general manager of GF's Fab 8 300-mm facility in New York, and before that, he spent 17 years at IBM Microelectronics from 1989 to 2005. While at the helm of GlobalFoundries, Caulfield sold assets he deemed unpromising, but more importantly, he quit the leading-edge process technology race, leaving it to Intel, TSMC, and Samsung. Instead, GlobalFoundries was repurposed to become a specialty foundry, competing in completely different markets. Eventually, he made the company profitable and guided it through an IPO. 

Thomas Caulfield's role change at GlobalFoundries has sparked speculation about his potential move to Intel. His departure comes without mention of retirement, and given his industry reputation, some Intel investors on Reddit believe that he could become the next CEO of Intel. Caulfield's extensive semiconductor industry experience, including his leadership at GF, operational expertise at IBM Microelectronics, and a doctorate in Materials Science from Columbia University, would make him a highly qualified candidate for Intel's CEO position. 

An unusual Intel stock trade is used to reinforce this theory: On February 4, when 8,913,900 Intel shares were purchased after hours for $172 million — an amount eerily close to the $178.59 million stock-based incentive given to Intel's previous chief executive Pat Gelsinger back in 2021. The Intel stock transaction was nearly three times the company's average daily trading volume, making it a highly irregular occurrence, particularly in the after-market. Large block trades of this nature are rare for Intel, and the timing aligns suspiciously with Caulfield's announcement the following day. 

However, some factors do not align with the theory. Under the terms of the GlobalFoudries shakeup, Thomas Caulfield becomes executive chairman of GlobalFoundries. Being a hands-on chairman typically involves substantial operational oversight or strategic direction, which can clash with the time demands of being a full-fledged CEO elsewhere. Naturally, one could assume that Intel wouldn't want a CEO who would spend significant amounts of time serving other companies. 

Yet, Caulfield will likely have to oversee GF as Tim Breen becomes the next CEO of GF, whereas Niels Anderskouv (currently the chief business officer) will take on the roles of president and COO. Ahmed Yahia Al Idrissi, who has been chairman for over a decade, will step down.

Another factor that should be kept in mind is that while Thomas Caulfield has over 30 years of operational excellence and is deeply respected in the semiconductor industry, he has limited experience running a products company and has zero experience running a products company at Intel scale. 

In general, while Thomas Caulfield has many competencies valued in the industry, his upcoming position at GlobalFoundries and some other factors do not necessarily support the theory that he is set to become the next CEO of Intel. However, Intel might be ready to make concessions to secure a CEO with industry experience. Only time will tell.

Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.

  • Alvar "Miles" Udell
    An article about a reddit post with the evidence being a stock block trade when said stock is lower now than it was then...
    Reply
  • frogr
    Intel would need to buy stock for any new CEO wouldn't they? (what I meant was the buyback need not be targeted for any particular ceo, i.e. Caulfield.
    Reply
  • acadia11
    Now this would be something GF was spinoff AMD when AMD decided to go fabless after unsuccessfully being able to manage the supply chain necessary to deliver chips with the same mastery of Intels FAB process nodes and TTM. Two decades Peterwith the pressures of the market the ascendence of Samsung and TSMC and Intel is turning to a former competitor to get on track in its business and apparently growth of FAB prowess. This must indicate Pat G had it right … Intel has a chance for growth via its FAB business or at worst fix its manufacturing issues. Got to say how the mighty have fallen and no one stays on top forever.
    Reply
  • 2Be_or_Not2Be
    So the speculation is for a new CEO who previously pulled GloFo off of advancing their process tech, and then made the company "profitable" again (no mention of the pandemic & how it boosted ALL chip companies).

    Yeah, that's NOT the best type of leader going forward for Intel. They need someone who can improve their manufacturing and re-capture the lead in process tech, not someone who "sold assets he deemed unpromising, but more importantly, he quit the leading-edge process technology race..."
    Reply
  • phead128
    Exactly,
    2Be_or_Not2Be said:
    So the speculation is for a new CEO who previously pulled GloFo off of advancing their process tech, and then made the company "profitable" again (no mention of the pandemic & how it boosted ALL chip companies).

    Yeah, that's NOT the best type of leader going forward for Intel. They need someone who can improve their manufacturing and re-capture the lead in process tech, not someone who "sold assets he deemed unpromising, but more importantly, he quit the leading-edge process technology race..."
    It makes sense to hire him then.... Intel now want to sell/spin off assets that's deadweight (Intel IFS) and quit the leading edge process, and this guy did exactly that at GloFlo. He quit 7nm and sold off deadweight assets to maximize shareholder value.

    Intel is unironically going to skyrocket in stock value because Intel Products is highly lucrative by simply outsourcing to TSMC for leading edge.
    Reply
  • JamesJones44
    If true, my immediate speculation would be Intel will do a spin-off that merges Global Foundries with Intel Foundry into a new company. In investors eyes this would be a win-win. Intel sheds a business they no longer want and haven't been able to keep up with and Global Foundries gets back into the leading edge node game in a world where localization is currently in favor.

    Personally I don't like it, but given the actions by Intel and the current economic trends it might end up going that direction one way or another.
    Reply
  • JamesJones44
    frogr said:
    Intel would need to buy stock for any new CEO wouldn't they?
    Typically companies don't buy stock they award to CEOs, at least not in a traditional sense (meaning go to market, acquire the shares and then transfer ownership). They have a few ways in which they handle the awarded shares (typically via options or RSUs). Options are just that, the option to buy the stock at a strike price, it can be from the public market or shares the company has on hand or via new issues. RSUs work the same way though there are more rules around those. In both cases companies have options for how to handle the distribution. One way is to transfer outstanding shares the company itself already owns (via buybacks, reserves or both), the other options is to simply issue new stock, while some do different combinations of strategies. Google for example issues stock when they award it and then use buyback allocations to "re-acquire" the shares issued at a later date so that shareholders are not diluted by the issuing of new stock. However, companies are not obligated to buyback the shares they issue, it's simply an option some companies use to keep large shareholders happy, but not all companies do it.

    tldr; they don't need to buy stock in order to award stock to a new CEO, it just depends on the situation and what the company wants/is willing to do.
    Reply
  • JamesJones44
    Alvar Miles Udell said:
    An article about a reddit post with the evidence being a stock block trade when said stock is lower now than it was then...
    The link to the stock purchase and size is relatively weak in terms of speculation quality. It's rare for a company to buy stock and simply give it to a new CEO right out the gate on hire. It's almost always tied to KPIs over a set number of years (3 to 5 typically) and when those KPIs are met at the end of a fiscal year then the awards occurs. It's not unheard of to award up front, but that is usually reserved for rockstar CEOs with long track records. In this case I would call it unusual because Thomas Caulfield's CEO history is relatively short, but in desperate times...
    Reply
  • acadia11
    Seems the rumor did not move the needle on intc stock … so take that for what you will
    Reply
  • Pierce2623
    So Intel is hiring the titan of advancement that axed GloFo 7nm and the “10nm” upgrade on their 12nm node? You just can’t make this stuff up. They want somebody with tons of 14nm experience or something lol?
    Reply