Any CEO worth their salt should have been planning and positioning since 2017 to move their manufacturing closer to home. The tariff wars and the Covid 19 crisis's should have driven this strategic imperative home - literally. Unfortunately, the facilities will be highly automated and have much less need for high levels of traditional labor inputs.
Such strategic moves and capital allocations are the purview of the CEO's existence. In order not to directly "tip-off" the Chinese, smart CEO's are likely to have been engaging in this planning and implementation quietly. The simple financial move of buying back shares to boost EPS will no longer keep CEO's in their lofty positions.
The evolving world economy demands successful CEO's stay ahead to the herding pack with all kinds of strategic moves. Being on the cutting edge, before the herd, has higher degrees of risk, but will be much more profitable in the ever faster moving economic environment. Being a follower risks being shut out economically. Many "old thinking" CEO's will fall prey to staying on the safe route and their company's futures will be commensurately diminished, if not extinguished.
While I distain Intel's CEO's 171 million annual pay package, given shareholder's voted down this royal pay package and their BOD passing of it, Gelsinger is implementing the kind of forward seeking strategy that represents successful companies in the future. Moving forward quickly and effectively IS the future.
