- Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has retired from the company. He has also stepped down from Intel's board of directors.
- Intel has appointed David Zinsner and Michelle Johnston Holthaus as interim CEOs.
- Intel says its foundry leadership structure remains unchanged.
As Intel grapples with a significant decline in stock value, the chip giant has now announced that CEO Pat Gelsinger has retired from the company, effective immediately. Not only that, Gelsinger has also stepped down from Intel’s board of directors, after serving Intel for over 40 years in various positions.
For now, Intel has appointed David Zinsner and Michelle Johnston Holthaus as interim CEOs as the board looks for a new CEO. Zinsner is Intel’s CFO and Holthaus is the executive VP and GM of Client Computing Group. Additionally, Holthaus has been appointed as the CEO of Intel Products, a new group that includes Client Computing Group, Data Center and AI Group, and Network and Edge Group.
After retirement, Gelsinger said, “Leading Intel has been the honor of my lifetime – this group of people is among the best and the brightest in the business, and I’m honored to call each and every one a colleague. Today is, of course, bittersweet as this company has been my life for the bulk of my working career. I can look back with pride at all that we have accomplished together. It has been a challenging year for all of us as we have made tough but necessary decisions to position Intel for the current market dynamics. I am forever grateful for the many colleagues around the world who I have worked with as part of the Intel family.“
Notably, the announcement reads, “Intel Foundry leadership structure remains unchanged.“
Pat Gelsinger is known as the chief architect of the 80486 (Intel i486) processor. He joined Intel at the age of 18 in the year 1979 and later assumed the crucial role of CTO in 2001. He was instrumental in developing Wi-Fi, USB, Intel Core, and Intel Xeon processors. Later in 2009, Gelsinger left Intel and joined EMC. Shortly after that in 2012, he joined VMware as the CEO.
In 2021, Gelsinger came back to Intel and joined as the CEO to bring the company back on track. Under the erstwhile CEO, Brian Krzanich, Intel faced a leadership crisis in the foundry business. It repeatedly faced delays and was stuck on older 14nm and 10nm nodes whereas TSMC continued to innovate. Gelsinger’s appointment was seen as an important step to reclaim leadership in chip manufacturing.
However, Gelsinger’s bold moves to revive Intel didn’t impress the stock market. Since 2021, Intel lost more than 60% of its market value. Now, after the retirement announcement, Intel’s stock value has seen a slight uptick, gaining by 3.90%.
