Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger retires: 'Leading Intel has been the honor of my lifetime'

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger is retiring, effective immediately. The company boss that sought to lead the company's resurgence in the ever challenging chip market has stepped down and a permanent successor has yet to be found.

"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," Gelsinger says of the decision. "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."

Gelsinger's retirement ends a lengthy and successful career at Intel, cutting his teeth as an engineer and leading the creation of top chips. He later left to become CEO of VMware before heading back to Intel.

Gelsinger joined Intel in 2021, replacing then CEO Bob Swan. Swan had been sitting in the role since first being appointed interim CEO and then as operating CEO, after Intel could not find a suitable replacement.

The lack of candidates for the top job could be a concern with Intel's board today, too. For now, it's naming two of its current leadership team to take over at the helm: Michelle Johnston Holthaus, head of the Client Computing Group (CCG); and David Zinsner, chief finacial officer.

Holthaus has also been handed a new role as CEO of Intel Products, which covers the whole span of product-facing groups at Intel. Effectively running the show, it seems.

Intel faces an incredibly difficult market with competition from not only AMD but also ARM-based designs. A CEO search couldn't have come at a worse time. But then again, would it be in this situation if everything was shaping up and its recovery plan was working?

The simple answer is no, it wouldn't. Gelsinger felt to many like the right pick for a hard job at the time of appointment—someone with an engineering background capable of turning Intel around, including its struggling manufacturing arm. That recovery plan has not yet paid huge dividends, and though it still might be ultimately the right course of action, Intel remains in a tough spot.

"We are grateful for Pat’s commitment to Intel over these many years as well as his leadership," Zinsner and Holthaus say in a joint statement. "We will redouble our commitment to Intel Products and meeting customer needs. With our product and process leadership progressing, we will be focused on driving returns on foundry investments."

The challenges facing Intel are huge and span out further than even the original chipmaking firm itself. For example, Intel is embroiled in a battle to defend x86 versus Arm and similarly is central to US policy to move some chipmaking back to American shores.

For now, however, it does feel a shame that Gelsinger never saw his recovery plan through to its end. At its most ambitious, it would've seen Intel competing with TSMC for the top chipmaking crown and x86 proven to be top dog. As it stands, he retires from a company with more questions marks over its future than perhaps ever before.