Letter from Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger about the company’s CSR progress in 2022-23.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The following is an opinion editorial from Pat Gelsinger, chief executive officer of Intel Corporation:
The past several years demonstrated how central technology is to every aspect of human existence. Semiconductors power the essential technologies in a world that is becoming increasingly digital.
2022 was a challenging year for Intel. We continue to operate in a tough market, while simultaneously pursuing our multiyear transformation. To overcome these challenges, we remain committed to the highest ethical standards and to use our resources and ingenuity to solve the world’s greatest challenges. Our dedication to environmental, social and corporate governance is key to our success as a business.
I was reminded of this with the recent passing of Intel’s co-founder Gordon Moore, an icon whose legacy continues to inspire us every day. Moore was an avid philanthropist and established our commitment to environmental sustainability during a time when companies were not thinking about it the way they are today. This was a big part of his legacy and why corporate responsibility and sustainability remain deeply engrained in Intel’s DNA.
Over the past year, we have had some incredible achievements implementing sustainability as an industry initiative:
- Driving Our Value Chain Toward Sustainable Computing: Achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions is one of the most complicated challenges the technology industry faces. In 2022, we pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in our operations and across our value chain. We are focused on achieving 100% renewable energy, net-positive water and zero waste to landfills by 2030. We’ve developed a roadmap to drive reductions and ultimately achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across our global operations by 2040.
We are also collaborating with the industry and academia to identify, develop and pilot alternative green chemistry and abatement solutions, many of which do not exist today. For example, we are working with the industry association SEMI and the Semiconductor Research Corporation to set up a sustainable semiconductor manufacturing program that will strive to develop alternatives to these chemicals. Additionally, we are increasing energy efficiency and lowering the total carbon footprint of our products and platforms, which ultimately helps our customers achieve their sustainability goals. - Investing in Renewable Electricity: We work with local utility providers to develop new contracting mechanisms that facilitate the construction of renewable electricity projects near many of our sites worldwide. In addition, our on-site alternative and renewable electricity installations have grown exponentially over the past decade — we now have more than 110 across our campuses. I am proud to share that at the end of 2022, our global renewable electricity usage is 93%, up from 80% in 2021. We are focused on finding credible and scalable opportunities to reach 100% globally by 2030.
- Launching Our Most Sustainable Data Center Processors Ever: New generations of Intel products are designed to deliver higher performance using less energy. The 4th Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors feature built-in accelerators to help drive power efficiency and performance. Accelerators are a more efficient way to achieve higher workload performance, rather than growing the CPU core count. This gives customers an advantage in data center performance, efficiency, security and new capabilities for AI, the cloud, the network and edge, and the world’s most powerful supercomputers. We’re focused on improving operational usage with features like more energy-efficient designs, AI telemetry and lower carbon platforms.
In 2022, we also saw the historic passage of the CHIPS and Science Act. This was a victory for the semiconductor industry as well as American technological leadership and innovation; it will boost American semiconductor research, development and production, ensuring U.S. leadership in technology that forms the foundation of everything from household appliances to defense systems. Public-private partnerships are key to generating the large, long-term investments needed to develop critical technologies of the future.
We’re committed to deepening our collaborations to build on our current successes. Together, we can further drive tech as a force for good – ensuring the scale of our work with others to create a more responsible, inclusive and sustainable world, enabled through technology and the expertise and passion of our employees. For example, this past year we also:
- Achieved $2 Billion in Spending with Diverse Suppliers: We achieved our first RISE goal, 8 years ahead of schedule — reaching $2.2 billion in annual spending with diverse suppliers. We spent $1.4 billion with diverse-owned suppliers in 2021, 10 times the annual amount we spent when we kicked off our supplier diversity program in 2014.
- Expanded Digital Readiness: In 2020, we made a commitment to collaborate with governments in 30 countries and 30,000 institutions worldwide to empower more than 30 million people with artificial intelligence skills by 2030. Currently, we’ve expanded Intel® Digital Readiness Programs globally by collaborating with 27 country governments, enabling 23,000 institutions and training more than 4 million people.
- Reinforced a Commitment to Responsible AI: This year, we shared details of our responsible AI strategy, which aims to enable Intel to leverage its place in the AI value chain, drive meaningful progress and scale efforts broadly. As part of our responsible AI work, we announced the development of FakeCatcher, a technology that can detect fake videos with a 96% accuracy rate. Intel’s deepfake detection platform is the world’s first real-time deepfake detector that returns results in milliseconds.
We are all part of a globally interconnected evolution. As we continue to transform human progress, we must continue to create world-changing technology that improves the life of every person on the planet. Intel remains fully committed to executing our strategy to deliver leadership products anchored on open and secure platforms, powered by at-scale manufacturing and supercharged by our people. Our company and our people will continue to have a profound influence driving business and society forward by creating radical innovation that revolutionizes the way we live.
