In a surprise move, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has stepped down as head of the company after less than four years, as reported by Reuters and other outlets. The change caps a chaotic year for Intel, which is poised to report its first annual financial loss since 1986 and announced layoffs of at least 15,000 employees this year as it attempted to cut costs.
Intel CFO David Zinsner and Client Computing Group head Michelle Johnston Holthaus will be sharing the title of interim CEO while the company’s board of directors searches for a new CEO. Gelsinger has also stepped down from his seat on the board.
A statement from board chair Frank Yeary suggests that Intel plans to continue Gelsinger’s signature push into the chip foundry business.
“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,” said Yeary.
Gelsinger had pushed to transform Intel from a company that primarily manufactures and sells its own chip designs to one that also manufactures chips for other companies without their own factories. To do that, Intel would have to recover from years of manufacturing stumbles and catch back up with Taiwan-based TSMC, currently the world’s most advanced and most successful chip foundry. Even Intel has been using TSMC to manufacture many of its most advanced CPUs and GPUs in the last couple of years, breaking a decades-long streak of manufacturing most of its chips in house.