Rumor mill claims Intel wants Lisa Su as its new CEO

Apparently, one of the far-fetched rumors circulating at CES was that Intel is considering to acquire AMD. The rumor gets dismissed outright by most analysts, citing an acquisition of AMD would give Intel too much control over the x86 market. But EE Times reports a lot of analysts are open to the suggestion that Intel wants Lisa Su more than it wants AMD.

The chip giant has been without a CEO since Brian Krzanich got ousted in June 2018. The search for a new CEO is reportedly very difficult, as it's hard to find someone willing and qualified enough to turn Intel around. After AMD's remarkable turnaround, more and more folks in the tech industry believe Lisa Su could be the right pick for the job:

Many industry observers think Intel is too hard a company to manage for anyone who hasn’t grown up in its culture. [Analyst Jon] Peddie said, “It’s a damn tough job. Almost no one qualified inside wants it.” He added, “Finding someone from outside (highly unlikely) is tough — would you take someone from GE or IBM? Look at how that almost ruined AMD ten years ago, and Apple before that.”

He added the gender equality factor. Peddie doesn’t believe Intel has done enough to elevate women. The result is too-small a pool of female executives to choose from.

So will it happen? At this point it looks rather unlikely, but it could indeed be what Intel needs.