Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger officially departs company likely against his will

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has departed the company ahead of what was meant to be a four-year stint as CEO, and seemingly at the same time as Intel announcing its new "Battlemage" GPU.

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Intel has announced via a new press release that company CEO Pat Gelsinger will be departing the chipmaker as both a CEO and board member. Gelsinger's departure from the company came into effect on December 1, 2024. According to industry analyst Patrick Moorhead, chief analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy, who theorized, Intel's board of directors "made a decision or overruled a decision that Gelsinger thought was a bad one and he was out." Adding, "Something happened in the last week."

The departure of Gelsinger comes at a tumultuous time for Intel, as the company is still recovering from numerous missteps over the past few years. 13th and 14th generation CPU failures and the lack of disclosure regarding the issue to its customers broke consumer trust. Additionally, Intel largely missed the massive AI boat which is now being absolutely dominated by NVIDIA. All of these mistakes and others resulted in Intel letting go of 15% of its employees, or 15,000 staff members.

"I think the board made a decision or overruled a decision that Gelsinger thought was a bad one and he was out - likely related to the splitting Foundry from the design company." Patrick Moorhead, chief analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy, told The Register. "Something happened in the last week."

Moreover, Intel split off Foundry into its own business, and when it posted its quarterly financial reports, it revealed it had more than $11 billion in operating losses. Intel's share price has also plummeted, falling down by 47% since the start of the year. Given the current situation at Intel and the multiple fires the company is attempting to burn out, it's quite easy to see how the board, along with investors, would want to see if fresh blood at the helm of the company can prevent the death spiral that Intel is currently stuck in.

"I think people are missing the speed at which this went down. They backdated the announcement. He retired on December 1; it goes on December 2, right? He's not on the board. He's not an advisor... There is a hard separation between the board and Pat," he added