Intel Corp. CEO Pat Gelsinger has retired, ending a tumultuous four-year tenure at the scuffling semiconductor giant amid suffocating competition in the artificial intelligence (AI) arena from NVIDIA Corp., Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Qualcomm Inc.
Intel Chief Financial Officer David Zinsner and Michelle Johnston Holthaus, CEO of Intel Products, were named interim co-CEOs while the company searches for a new leader. The announcement Monday said Gelsinger retired Sunday as CEO and Intel executive chair.
“Pat spent his formative years at Intel, then returned at a critical time for the company in 2021,” Frank Yeary, independent chair of Intel’s board, said in a statement. “As a leader, Pat helped launch and revitalize process manufacturing by investing in state-of-the-art semiconductor manufacturing, while working tirelessly to drive innovation throughout the company.”
Daniel Newman, CEO of The Futurum Group, weighed in with this “visceral take” via X: “Board wanted to split the company and Pat was clearly against doing this and was steadfast on staying the course of IDM + Foundry. Other possibilities include business performance, pressure from policymakers around Chips Act money, AI opportunities missed…”
Gelsinger, whose career spans more than 40 years, started at Intel in 1979 as a teenager and was its first chief technology officer in 2001. He returned to Intel as CEO in February 2021 after a long stint as CEO of VMware Inc.
When he returned as Intel’s prodigal son, Gelsinger set upon an ambitious path to re-engineer the company into a chip-making power on a par with Taiwan’s TSMC and Samsung Electronics. A linchpin of that plan was building facilities in the U.S. and overseas, an expensive undertaking that cut into Intel’s free cash flow while raising the company’s debt. A poor recent quarter led to the decision to shed 15,000 jobs.
Just last week Intel landed a $7.86 billion grant under the CHIPS and Science Act to help fund Intel’s factory-building plans; the grant was initially pegged at $8.5 billion.
Intel also suffered from a belated push for AI chips, losing valuable market share to a fledgling NVIDIA, Qualcomm and smaller nemesis AMD.
Withering market conditions and competition forced Intel in September to reveal plans to turn its foundry business into an independent subsidiary. That same month, news surfaced that Qualcomm was exploring a possible takeover of part, if not all, of Intel.
“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,” Gelsinger said in a statement.
During Gelsinger’s tenure, the company’s market value plunged to less than half of what it was in 2021, and briefly dipped beneath $100 billion earlier this year. For the year to date, Intel’s stock has tumbled more than 50%. The S&P 500 index, by comparison, is up 26% in 2024.
“Pat is a high-integrity guy,” Punit Minocha, Zscaler Inc.’s executive vice president of business development and corporate strategy. “I just don’t know if he’ll stay retired, or take another run at it.”
