Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, who stepped down Sunday after a 40-year career with the company, recently announced that he has allowed the once-dominant semiconductor maker to overshadow its competitors. He was hurt by the mistake he made.
The company announced Monday that David Zinsner and Michelle Johnston Holthaus have been named co-CEOs as the board searches for a new chief executive officer.
Mr. Zinsner is the company's executive vice president and chief financial officer. Mr. Holthaus is chief executive officer of Intel Products, which includes the company's Client Computing and Artificial Intelligence groups.
Intel stock rose 3.9% on Monday.
The 63-year-old executive said it was the honor of a lifetime to lead Inter.
“Today is, of course, a bittersweet day, as this company has been my life for much of my career,” Gelsinger said in a statement. “We can look back with pride at all we have accomplished together. It’s been a difficult year.”
Frank Yeary, the independent chairman of the board, will serve as interim executive chairman as the company searches for new leadership.
“On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to thank Pat for his many years of service and contributions to Intel throughout his long career as a technology leader,” Yeary said in a statement. “Pat spent his formative years at Inter and returns in 2021 at a critical time for the company.”
In a statement, Mr. Yearly emphasized that the company recognizes that it still has work to do to restore investor confidence and deliver on its product group.
The company's stock has plummeted 49.7% so far this year, hitting a 10-year low in September as Intel struggles to keep up in the fierce competition among artificial intelligence chipmakers.
In November, Intel reported a massive third-quarter loss of $16.6 billion, a far cry from its $300 million net profit in the same period a year earlier. Earlier this year, the company announced major cost-cutting efforts, including cutting 15,000 employees through layoffs and voluntary agreements.
A new chief executive could boost confidence that the company can turn around.
Mr. Gelsinger left the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company in 2009 to join Dell EMC, then served as chief executive officer of VMware, a software and cloud computing company, before joining the company in 2001. He took charge of Inter in May.
Mr. Gelsinger first joined Intel in 1979 at the age of 18, having just graduated with an associate's degree from Lincoln Institute of Technology. Mr. Gelsinger earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Santa Clara University while working as an engineer at Intel.
He became the company's first chief technology officer in 2001 after working as a design engineer for new Intel microprocessors, earning eight patents, and managing the company's product division.
