Ex-Intel CEO Gelsinger Bets on Light-Based Chips to Revive Moore's Law

After departing Intel as CEO in late 2024, Pat Gelsinger conducted 100 meetings in 100 days before joining Playground Capital, a deep tech-focused VC firm, as general partner in March 2025. His primary thesis: advances in lithography—chip etching using nanoscale light beams—are the key to reviving Moore's Law, the principle that transistor counts double roughly every two years. Current leading lithography technology, developed by Dutch firm ASML, uses 13.5-nanometer wavelength light. Gelsinger believes pushing to even shorter wavelengths could unlock more powerful processors at a time when shrinking atomic-scale transistors has become physically and economically prohibitive. He took a board seat at Playground portfolio company xLight, which is developing next-generation lithography techniques and has received US government funding. Gelsinger chose venture over private equity, stating he preferred working at 'the edge of science' over managing financial returns. He noted that AI's disruption of the software industry has driven many VC firms toward deep tech, arguing his semiconductor background uniquely positions him to identify viable startups. He spoke with WIRED at the RAISE Summit in Paris in early July 2026.