Watch CNBC's full interview with Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger

Joining us right now to talk about the global computer chip shortage, manufacturing expansion plans and ideas on how to help balance supply chains. Pat Gelsinger is here. He's the CEO of Intel. And Pat, it's great to see you. We're thrilled to have you here without the snow. We're saying just how nice it is to be here with this weather. This is great. We're being blown around but not being snowed in. This is good. Here's where I want to start. There was just this news this morning, President Biden making some comments that have gotten a lot of attention around Taiwan. The reason why we're all so focused on Taiwan in terms of the business impact is on the world of chips and chip making. Yeah. So I'm curious what your what your thought is on a morning like this and these comments that he's making. Well, you know, first, I think it's great that Biden's in Asia. And to me, you know, the rebuilding of our partnerships in Europe, why we're here in Davos and World Economic Forum, but also in Asia, I think are super important and very happy to see the administrative really leaning into those partnerships. And clearly, post Ukraine, they're more important than ever. So very happy to go see that. Obviously, Asia is super important for chips, right? So it's very important in that sense. Hey, you know, independent of where they are, we want good partnerships and good focus there. But it also just reinforces why we are so adamant we need geographically balanced, resilient supply chains. And if we get those in place, everybody can be calmer about the overall industry speed of which you think that's actually realistic, meaning if you press press go, which you are trying to press go, how quickly do you think we can get to a place where we are independent of the need for chip manufacturing in Taiwan? Oh, never. Right. Never, never. It is always that we have geographical relationships. What we're saying is we need more balanced geographic supply chains. And the moonshot that we've suggested and, you know, was agreed upon by Secretary Raimondo in the U.S. and, you know, Ursula von der Leyen in Europe is 30 percent U.S., 20 percent in Europe and 50 percent in Asia. And compared to 80-20 today, 80 percent in Asia and 20 percent between U.S. and Europe. If we got by the end of the decade, we got to 50-50, we're saying that is a great outcome for the world. It's not that we're independent of Taiwan or other parts of Asia, but we're balanced and we meet our local supply. We reinforce local economies. We meet national security requirements. And then everybody can be calm because it's like, oh, the most important things, oh, I can manufacture locally even as I'm working through these supply chain imbalances. I want to talk about Intel's business and what you're seeing in the economy, but there's another headline, which you know a lot about, VMware Broadcom as a former VMware man yourself. What do you think of this deal? Well, you know, first it's a rumor, you know, I'm, you know, happily reading the newspapers like you on that. But you know, for us, you know, I, you know, I'm excited about VMware being an innovative partner for the future and any potential transaction for them. I'd want to make sure that innovation is alive and well, you know, hybrid cloud. We do a lot with them, you know, in the low levels of our hardware stack, meaning their software stack. So that would be my priority. Is it going to enable that future innovation? And what do you, is that, is it, is it or not? Well, I'm not sure that that's how, that's the lens that I would be looking at it through, you know, if it's an economic deal, just around the dollars and cents, not a good answer. It has to be around the innovation potential for the company, for its customers, for its employees. You know, these are, you're extraordinary software engineers and many of them I worked with for eight years, you know, my soul was in this company for eight years. So, but do you want to see this happen or not? I don't know yet. We're anxious to see it. If it doesn't reinforce innovation, I'd say no. If it does enable a vibrant cycle of innovation, maybe. Okay. One of the questions we're all asking here is, is what we're actually seeing in the economy and not just what we've seen in the past quarters, but even just what we, what you're seeing in the last couple of weeks, but literally the conversations you're having here in terms of sales and what's not, are you, are you feeling any kind of slowdown? I mean, meaningful. Yeah. You know, definitely. And we commented on our last Ernie's call around consumer slowing a bit, you know, and some of the areas being impacted because of supply chains being challenged, particularly from the Shanghai shutdowns. Right. And, you know, and that has just sort of created, you know, this, you know, this backing up of everything. And now everybody's looking, saying, well, you know, am I going to be able to ship my inventory? Maybe I should adjust my inventory levels as well, given I'm not sure where my supply chains are going to be able. So we've definitely seen a bit of a softening in certain areas because of that. On the other hand, it's like we have been so far behind for so long, it's like maybe a little bit of reprieve allows us to start bringing a bit more supply demand balance as well. When you talk to your people about what the next, call it 18, 24 months is going to look like, what do you tell them? Well, you know, we we are on a 10 year journey and, you know, and I say we're making these long term investments for capacity. The semiconductor industry today, about 600 billion, it's about 1.1 trillion by the end of the decade. That's the path that we're on. Don't be too disturbed by monthly or quarterly cycles because we have a 10 year plan that we're building out. But hey, you know, inflation's rising. Monetary policy is tightening. You know, we're probably in for economically a little bit more challenging period in the near term, but we're not going to be distracted. We're out to build a great company for this decade. One of the things that you're confronting, as are a lot of companies, wages and also unions. What do you think's going on there? Well, I think everybody, you know, post covid, you know, lots of what happens, you know, I can work from anywhere. So maybe I want to work other places. You know, we've clearly seen different aspects. And what are your post covid policies with regard to workforce? You know, and how will that look going forward? So there clearly is a lot of what is the future of work looking like now for us? You know, I mean, a lot of our people are in factories and in labs, you know, it hasn't changed one bit. Show up in the factory, in the lab, you got to ship product. But a lot of them we've said, hey, work from anywhere as long as you show up for the necessary meetings. You know, I don't care if you're living closer to your mother or parents and get to have a better quality of life. I'm excited about that, you know, but show up and get your job done for us. And, you know, talent is always a war for talent is persistent in the technology industry. So I have to make sure I have the best. We're getting lots of people wanting to come back to the company because the exciting future we're laying out on the topic of wages. We got to talk about your own wages. I'm actually curious what it feels like personally. The shareholders are not happy with your wages. What do you think of that? Well, you know, as I think about it, you know, as the board gave the package for me to come over, a large portion of it was just the equivalent of what I had at VMware. Essentially, everything else is at risk. Right. You know, if I don't produce for the shareholders, I get nothing. Right. You know, at that level, you know, third would be, you know, my base level salary is at the 50 percentile with other CEOs. So I'm sort of in the middling there, you know, paid for VMware. Everything else is at risk, which is perfectly aligned with shareholder interest. And fundamentally, I'm going to give most of it away anyway. And, you know, my wife and I are very charitable and we're very happy to say if I get more, we're going to give it to charities to improve the quality of life. This changes the dynamic in terms of how pay is set at a place like Intel in the future. Do you see this as a trend? We, by the way, saw this with Jamie Dimon as well. Well, I do think, you know, this whole idea of say on pay and, you know, how is that managed gets a lot of scrutiny. And, you know, I'm not bothered by that. You know, I think there is a certain level of accountability in that respect. So I think it's a fair process. And, you know, boards and CEOs do need to be sensitive to that and thoughtful about how they manage it. And in my case, hey, I'm perfectly comfortable that if I do a great job, the shareholders are going to be extraordinarily rewarded in the process.