Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has stepped down after more than 40 years with the company and will also step down from the board of directors effective December 1, 2024. Recently, Intel has been going through a deep crisis that has led to the layoffs of tens of thousands of workers, a significant drop in the stock and talk of selling the company to competitors.
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has stepped down after more than 40 years with the company and will also step down from the board of directors effective December 1, 2024. Recently, Intel has been going through a deep crisis that has led to the layoffs of tens of thousands of workers, a significant drop in the stock and talk of selling the company to competitors.
As reported by The Verge, Gelsinger returned as CEO of Intel in February 2021, replacing Bob Swan. He was supposed to help the chipmaker out of trouble, but those efforts didn’t go according to plan, and now the company is in an even deeper crisis.
Pat Gelsinger largely missed the AI chip boom that fueled Nvidia’s growth, failed to launch new technology on schedule, and struggled to deal with recent processor instability issues.
This all led to rumors that Qualcomm was considering acquiring Intel, but it appears that its interest has passed. Asked about a potential deal on Nov. 20, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said the company «has not identified any major acquisition that would be necessary.»
Ahead of the launch of Intel’s new Arc graphics cards this week, the company’s Core Ultra 9 200S series processors received a lukewarm reception, with Robert Hallock, Intel’s vice president and general manager of artificial intelligence and technical marketing, admitting that the launch «didn’t go as planned».
After reports of problems affecting Intel’s next-generation 18A chip manufacturing process, Gelsinger announced in September that Intel would spin off its chip business into a separate company and halt construction of semiconductor plants it is building in Poland and Germany. Intel Foundry will become an independent subsidiary with «clearer separation and independence» from Intel.
Intel also recently received nearly $8 billion in CHIPS and Science Act funding to build plants in Arizona, New Mexico, Ohio, and Oregon.
«We must not only rebuild internal culture and execution, but also rebuild the trust of our customers,» Gelsinger said in 2022. But after his appointment, Intel continued to face difficulties.
Intel revealed earlier this year that its chip business would post an operating loss of $7 billion in 2023, and the company decided to cut more than 15,000 jobs in August as part of a $10 billion cost-cutting plan.
Following Gelsinger’s departure, Intel CFO David Zinsner and Intel Products CEO Michelle Johnston Holthouse will serve as interim co-chairmen while the board of directors searches for a new leader. Frank Gowry, Intel’s independent chairman, will assume the role of interim executive chairman.
«It has been the honor of my lifetime to lead Intel—this group of people is one of the best and brightest in the business, and I am honored to call each of them a colleague. Today is of course bittersweet, as this company has been my life for most of my working career. I can look back with pride and remember everything we achieved together. It’s been a challenging year for all of us as we’ve made difficult but necessary decisions to position Intel for current market dynamics», — Gelsinger said in a press release.
It will be recalled that earlier the Intel company decided to return free coffee and tea to its employees, which were removed earlier to reduce costs. That’s how she hopes to lift the spirits of workers after the layoff of about 15,000 of their colleagues, falling stocks and other problems.
