Intel announces that CEO Pat Gelsinger has retired, and the search is on for his replacement

Intel has announced that its CEO, Pat Gelsinger, has retired from the company effective as of yesterday.

Gelsinger has vacated the chief exec post and stepped down from the board of the chip giant, following what Intel described as a "distinguished 40-plus-year career."

His temporary replacements will be David Zinsner and Michelle Johnston Holthaus, who will serve as interim co-chief executive officers, while Intel looks for another CEO to take the reins.

Zinsner is the current CFO of Intel, and Holthaus is CEO of Intel Products, a new position (she was previously general manager of Intel's Client Computing Group, which the new expanded group now contains).

Frank Yeary, independent chair of the board of Intel, has been made interim executive chair during what Intel is describing as this transitional period.

Yeary said of Gelsinger:

"On behalf of the board, I want to thank Pat for his many years of service and dedication to Intel across a long career in technology leadership. Pat spent his formative years at Intel, then returned at a critical time for the company in 2021. As a leader, Pat helped launch and revitalize process manufacturing by investing in state-of-the-art semiconductor manufacturing, while working tirelessly to drive innovation throughout the company."

There's no comment from Gelsinger as such, although he indirectly acknowledged what's happened in a short post on X, as you can see above. (If you follow the ex-CEO on that social media outlet at all, you'll know he's partial to a biblical quote).

Intel stock is up already (by 3.7% at the time of writing) following the announcement, and it's no secret that the company has had a troubled year to say the least - from instability problems with its desktop CPUs, through to a wobbly Arrow Lake launch, and having to make a major round of layoffs.

So, investors will be hoping a change at the top will help steady the ship, and clearly enough, the same goes for Intel's board.