He confirmed that he approached Intel about buying a significant portion of the company before Gelsinger's departure.

"As someone in the industry my whole career, it is a little sad to see what's happening. Intel is an innovation powerhouse. At the same time, you have to innovate in our industry. There are many tombstones of great tech companies that don't reinvent themselves," Haas said.

He highlighted Intel's ongoing dilemma of choosing between being a vertical company or a fabless company.

"Pat [Kicking Gelsinger] had a very clear strategy: vertical was the way to win. In my opinion, when he took that strategy on in 2021, that was not a three-year strategy. That was a five-to-10-year strategy. He's gone, and there's a new CEO to be brought in, and the decision has to be made."

Haas believes in the power of vertical integration but acknowledges the significant costs involved. "If they could get that right, they would be in an amazing position. But its cost is so high that it may be too big of a hill to climb."

Reflecting on his past discussions with Gelsinger, Haas remarked, "When Pat was the CEO, I did tell him more than once, 'You ought to license Arm because if you've got your own fabs, fabs are all about volume and we can provide volume.' I wasn't successful in convincing him to do that."

Haas also hinted at the possibility of Arm building its own AI chips, suggesting that hardware companies have a better perspective on design trade-offs.

"So, if we were to do something, that would be one of the reasons."