Intel (INTC) CEO Lip-Bu Tan: Agentic AI Drives CPU Demand; Multiple CEOs Personally Call for Orders

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan said on June 2, 2026, at Computex Taipei that the rise of Agentic AI has sharply increased enterprise demand for central processing units, causing supply tightness and prompting multiple chief executives to call him directly over the past four weeks to request more CPU shipments. Tan noted that while the market has been fixated on GPUs for large-model training in recent years, the shift toward inference, automated task orchestration, and multi-agent collaboration is revealing the overlooked role of CPUs in data processing, workflow coordination, and reinforcement learning. "Agentic AI is highly CPU-intensive during reinforcement learning and task orchestration," he said, adding that future AI infrastructure will be a heterogeneous mix of CPUs, GPUs, and ASICs rather than dominated by a single chip type. Intel is positioning for this shift with a four-part strategy covering PCs, edge and Agentic AI, core data centers, and emerging smart hubs, alongside a long-term commitment to x86. The company displayed its Xeon 6+ processor, built on the 18A process and aimed at high-density AI agent hosting. Tan called 2026 "a transformation year" and said Intel is building a new company. Analysts said the CPU demand revival presents an opportunity to reshape Intel's data-center standing but cautioned that Xeon 6+ shipments and ecosystem validation will determine whether it can challenge the "AI equals GPU" perception.