Pat Gelsinger stepped down after nearly four years at the helm of the company, Intel said Monday.
Intel’s chief executive officer, Pat Gelsinger, stepped down after nearly four years leading the semiconductor company, Intel announced Monday, a surprise leadership change as the chipmaker has struggled in recent months.
Mr. Gelsinger, who took the helm in 2021, also resigned from the company’s board of directors. He will be replaced in the interim by two Intel executives, David Zinsner and Michelle Johnston Holthaus. The company said it would continue its search for permanent replacements.
The leadership change signals Intel’s growing urgency to turn around its business, which has been left in the dust during the lucrative artificial intelligence boom that has turned its rival chipmaker, Nvidia, into one of the world’s most valuable companies. Intel recently cut 15,000 jobs, and its revenue declined more than 30 percent from 2021 through 2023.
Shares of Intel rose about 5 percent in premarket trading, before paring back some of those gains, after the company announced Mr. Gelsinger’s retirement. A loss in market share and struggles in the A.I. market have contributed to a 52 percent slump in the company’s stock price so far this year.
“We have much more work to do at the company and are committed to restoring investor confidence,” Frank Yeary, who will serve as the company’s interim executive chair on the board, said in a statement.
Mr. Gelsinger said in the statement that the move was bittersweet. “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,” he added.