Pat Gelsinger is leaving Intel after his return three-year return back at the company. Gelsinger spent most of his career at Intel before leaving in 2009 to work at EMC as its president and CEO. He then went on to join VWware in 2012 as its CEO before coming back to Intel in February of 2021.
Gelsinger’s departure from Intel was reportedly a rocky one. According to Bloomberg, the board of directors at Intel hosted a meeting to discuss the current progress of the company’s race to catch up with NVIDIA. The board have been concerned regarding Intel’s loss in market share over the past few years. Not to mention the two recent CPU launches that didn’t go as planned.
During the meeting, Gelsinger was given the option to retire or be removed from his position at Intel. He then chose retirement and announced his departure from the company effective immediately. At the moment there’s no word who will take over Gelsinger’s role. In the interim, David Zinsner and Michelle Johnston Halthaus will serve as co-CEOs while the board finds a new candidate.
Intel is playing catch-up with most of the industry at the moment. The company has fallen behind on AI advancements, gaming and productivity. These sectors are currently being led by Qualcomm, AMD and NVIDIA. Intel’s recent Core Ultra 200S chips were met with mixed reception following the tech’s heavy power use, price point and lack of improvement. Compared to AMD, there’s very little reason to adopt Intel.
Gelsinger shared some words on X announcing his departure saying:
Leading Intel has been the honor of my lifetime. I am forever grateful for the many colleagues around the world who I have worked with as part of the Intel family and can look back with pride at all that we have accomplished together. Thank you all!