Intel's CEO steps down as chipmaker tries to restore investor confidence

• Intel's CEO Pat Gelsinger stepped down on December 1, the company said Monday.
• Intel has struggled to keep up with rivals like Nvidia during the global chip race in recent years.
• Intel's share price was up more than 3% at market open after the news of Gelsinger's departure.

Intel's CEO Pat Gelsinger has stepped down, the company said in a statement Monday, as the US chipmaker struggles to keep up in the global chip race.

Gelsinger leaves the chipmaker with immediate effect, vacating his role both as CEO and as a member of the board.

Two senior Intel executives, David Zinsner and Michelle Johnston Holthaus, will take interim charge during the search for a new CEO.

Intel, once a giant of Silicon Valley, has seen its share price drop almost 50% so far this year as it has faced multiple challenges.

Gelsinger's plans to revitalize the company included ambitions to build more factories in the US and Europe that would scale its production capacity, as well as designing its own line of AI chips, named Gaudi, to take on industry heavyweight Nvidia.

Many of these efforts have struggled, however. Last month, Gelsinger said the company was set to miss its target of $500 million in 2024 sales for Gaudi 3, its latest series of AI chips, due to software-related issues.

Gelsinger rolled out a sweeping set of initiatives earlier this year in a bid to turn the company around. In August, Intel laid off 15,000 employees, said it would suspend its dividend from the fourth quarter, and cut its capital spending.

Intel's stock price rose more than 3% when markets opened on Monday.

Frank Yeary, Intel's chairman, thanked Gelsinger and said the company needed to restore investor confidence.

"While we have made significant progress in regaining manufacturing competitiveness and building the capabilities to be a world-class foundry, we know that we have much more work to do at the company and are committed to restoring investor confidence," Yeary said.

Intel received a boost last month as it was awarded $7.9 billion in federal grants through the US CHIPS Act.

Gelsinger was brought in to lead the Santa Clara-headquartered company in 2021, with a remit to turn it into a powerhouse of the chip industry and close the gap with Taiwanese rival TSMC.

He first joined Intel in 1979 and rose to become its chief technology officer in 2001. He then left the company in 2009 to join EMC, a subsidiary of Dell. In 2012, he became CEO of cloud-computing firm VMWare, before returning to Intel as CEO in 2021.