Watch our exclusive interview with Dr. Ahmad Bahai, CTO at at Texas Instruments (NASDAQ: TXN). We could find Texas Instruments innovation everywhere, from #datacenters chips, to embedded processors and even calculators. We started by discussing #KilbyLabs and how they decide what to develop, including how they evaluate whether an idea has enough moat to justify the required R&amp;D investment and time. From there, we explored several of their innovations, including the new bulk acoustic wave #BAW clock technology, cutting-edge isolation solutions, and radar technologies. We then discussed their recent breakthrough in creating the world’s smallest microcontroller #MCU and how this development could reshape the semiconductor space. But of course, as a formidable #Chess player, we compared chess strategy to the semi industry - highlighting both similarities and differences, especially in a field where time-to-market can span up to five years. And guess who Dr. Ahmad’s favorite #book is about? 💡⚡🔬 Check our new website: https://www.boardroomclub.net Register for our newsletter https://boardroomclub.substack.com Interviewer: Yossi Garmazi #ai #tech #agent #chips #semiconductor Chapters: 00:00 Researchers &amp; Innovation 00:34 Intro 01:06 From Startup to Texas Instruments (TI) 04:43 Academia Vs Industry 07:22 Kilby Labs: Deciding What to Develop 11:01 Kilby Labs: New Clock &amp; Isolation &amp; Radar 16:05 The Worlds Smallest MCU 20:00 AI: Keeping the Innovative Spark 23:50 Motivating Engineers 25:36 Silicon Labs Acquisition 28:04 Playing Chess &amp; Business 30:35 Holdings 40 Patents 31:18 Mentorship 33:00 Coffee Question 33:57 Hobbies 34:45 Favorite Movie

Texas Instruments CTO: Our Innovation is Everywhere | Apex Series

Boardroom Club

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** Boardroom Club

## Transcript

Researchers have a tendency to fall in love with their ideas. And because they are smart people and intellectual, they believe in what they are doing. And sometimes you may ignore the response from the world. Could be from the market, from customer, from customer's customer. What are the alternative approaches? What are the competing technologies? So we need to constantly calibrate our work by understanding what impact we are going to have on our customers. And you cannot assume that impact.

You need to go and talk to them. You need to go and get their feedback.

Hi, everybody. Good afternoon, good evening, and good morning wherever you are. Thank you very much for joining the Boardroom Club today for another episode. So today you are fortunate enough to interview no other than Dr. Ahmad Bai, CTO of Texas Instruments, the global semiconductor powerhouse that revolutionizing how the world connects senses and processes information through innovative semiconductor innovations. So, Ahmad, thank you so much for joining us today. Good morning. It's a pleasure. And thank you for taking the time to host me.

Absolutely. The pleasure is all ours. So, Ahmad, I want to start with a quick question about your founding background because you founded Algorex before it got acquired by National Semiconductor, which I think just within a few months got acquired by Texas Instruments.

And so I was wondering, if you're looking back, what was the most difficult founder lesson that you had to learn when transitioning from sort of like a startup mentality environment to a place like Texas Instruments with all the side width?

So maybe I start from a little bit earlier. So maybe I start from a little bit earlier time of my career. After my graduation, I joined Bell Labs. And Bell Labs back then was the place to innovate, work with the most innovative people, brand names in the technology from semiconductor to communication to optics and everything in between.

So it was really a great environment for a fresh graduate student, a PhD student graduating from school to go to a place that is unique in the sense that you're working with the icons of the technology. So I really enjoyed my time there and a lot of great ideas and engagements with many scientists and technologists there helped me to appreciate the value of innovation.

After Bell Labs, I started my own company, which was focusing on acoustic and wireless communication, hiring some of the best names from Bell Labs and the rest of the industry. And we, of course, going from a very big center of excellence in R&D to startup is a big transition. You can imagine in startups, you are always on your toes in the sense that you are one step away from success or running out of resources and funding.

So you need to keep running and moving and making sure that your innovation has some traction in the market. And after almost two years of the startup, the compan...

Texas Instruments CTO: Our Innovation is Everywhere | Apex Series

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.

Texas Instruments CTO: Our Innovation is Everywhere | Apex Series

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.