After Pat Gelsinger departed Intel as CEO in late 2024, he held 100 meetings in 100 days. The idea, he told WIRED recently, was to whittle down his options until he figured out what to do next.
The following March, Gelsinger announced that he had taken a position as general partner at Playground Capital, a venture capital firm specializing in deep tech, taking bets on fledgling technologies built on new science.
Gelsinger took the role with the aim of helping a new generation of semiconductor startups reawaken Moore’s law. Decades ago, Intel cofounder Gordon Moore predicted that the number of transistors on a chip would double roughly every two years, with a corresponding leap in performance. That held true for a long time, but as semiconductor firms press the limits of physics, further shrinking atomic-scale transistors has become prohibitively difficult and expensive.
Gelsinger believes the best way to break that impasse is through advances in lithography—etching chips using nanometer-scale beams of light. The leading lithography technology, developed by the Dutch company ASML, lets chip manufacturers print using 13.5-nanometer wavelength light. The ability to cram in more, even smaller features, the logic goes, would unlock even more powerful processors.
When he joined Playground, Gelsinger took a board seat at xLight, a portfolio company developing novel lithography techniques that also recently received investment from the US government. (When we spoke, Gelsinger repeatedly offered the phrase, “God said, ‘Let there be light!’”)
As artificial intelligence upends the software industry, more and more VC firms are shifting toward deep tech. But few, Gelsinger contends, are better equipped than he is to spot the winners.
WIRED met Gelsinger in early July at the RAISE Summit conference in Paris. We discussed his process for vetting deep tech founders, the US government’s shifting stance on AI and semiconductors, and why breakthroughs in those fields necessarily come hand in hand.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
WIRED: Roughly four months separated your departure from Intel and arrival at Playground. What was going through your head during that period?
PAT GELSINGER: My wife said, “You’re not done yet.”
I was looking at government roles, university roles, CEO roles, private equity, venture. It was really a deductive process. I decided I didn’t want to do [any more] public earnings calls. I didn’t see myself as a politician. It came down to private equity or venture.
I want to do things that matter—that if they succeed, make a difference—with people I enjoy.
Why did you decide against private equity?
Private equity writes bigger checks, but it’s not as focused on the tech. At this phase of my career, do I want to write big checks and worry about financial returns, or do I want to do cool tech?
We’re at the edge of science, proving things out. That’s always the kind of person I’ve been. I love tech.
A bunch of VCs are shifting toward deep tech in response to the disruption of the software industry by AI. What’s your take on how AI is changing where the next investment opportunities appear?
The door has blown wide open.
In 2024, the semiconductor industry aimed to hit a trillion dollars by 2030. Now, we’ll hit a trillion dollars next year. I don’t need my companies to win the market to get extraordinary returns. I just need them to win a decent percentage. That’s what AI has done to deep tech venture.
The good news is that a lot of venture firms are swinging in that direction. The bad news is that, for the most part, they’ve forgotten how to do deep tech—how to pick the winners and losers.