AI Too Expensive, Former Intel CEO Argues

Fresh off announcing his new role as executive chairman and chief technology officer at Gloo earlier this week, former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has become a general partner at early-stage venture capital firm Playground Global and has also joined the board of Playground portfolio company xLight, which develops lasers for chipmakers, David Meyer reported for Fortune’s Data Sheet.

Gelsinger argued that more fundamental breakthroughs are needed for AI to reach its full potential.

Gelsinger is also voicing concerns about the chip industry—specifically, the push to onshore semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S.

He argued that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s (TSMC) $100 billion pledge for advanced chipmaking in the U.S. will not make the country a leader in the field because the company continues to conduct its critical research and development in Taiwan.

“All of the R&D work of TSMC is in Taiwan, and they haven’t made any announcements to move that,” he said.

“Unless you’re designing the next-generation transistor technology in the U.S., you do not have leadership in the U.S.”

Interestingly, Gelsinger dismissed concerns about China’s DeepSeek as a major competitor to U.S. AI firms, stating that while it represents “good engineering,” it does not introduce “core innovations.”

He also argued that more fundamental breakthroughs are needed for AI to reach its full potential. “AI, as exciting as it is, is much too expensive. We need dramatic reductions in the cost of inference for it to be truly deployed across all aspects of humanity,” he said.