On December 2nd local time, global chip giant Intel announced that its CEO Pat Gelsinger has retired and resigned from the board of directors, effective December 1st, 2024. According to the information, Pat Kisinger has been working at Intel for over 40 years.
Intel has announced the appointment of two senior leaders, David Zinsner and Michelle Johnston Holthaus, as interim co CEOs, while the board is searching for a new CEO.
It is reported that Zinner is the executive vice president and chief financial officer of Intel, and Holthaus has been appointed as the newly established chief executive officer of Intel products, fully responsible for customer computing, data center and artificial intelligence, network and edge computing and other business sectors. Frank Yeary, independent chairman of Intel's board of directors, will temporarily take over as executive chairman. The leadership structure of Intel foundries remains unchanged.
Frank Yeary, independent chairman of Intel's board of directors, stated that Kissinger returned at a critical moment for the company in 2021. As a leader, he helped launch and revitalize the manufacturing business by investing in the most advanced semiconductor manufacturing technology, while sparing no effort to drive innovation throughout the company. He also stated that Intel has made significant progress in regaining manufacturing competitiveness and becoming a world-class wafer foundry, but the company still has a lot of work to do and is committed to restoring investor confidence. As a board of directors, I am well aware that the top priority is to place the company's product division at the core of all work. With the appointment of a new CEO, Intel will ensure that the product division has the necessary resources to meet customer needs.
After the announcement of Kissinger's retirement, Intel rose over 4% in pre-market trading and nearly 6% in intraday trading. As of the close of the US stock market on December 2nd local time, Intel's stock price was $23.93, down 0.5%, with a market value of $103.21 billion.
The market believes that Kissinger's "sudden" retirement may be due to Intel's recent underperformance under his leadership. It has been revealed that at an earlier board meeting, the conflict between Kissinger and the board reached an irreversible level. The Intel board believes that Kissinger failed to effectively lead the company to catch up with Nvidia and lacked confidence in his recovery plan.
In recent years, as a giant in the PC era and entering the mobile Internet era, Intel's performance has gradually become weak. Especially in this wave of big model new technologies, Intel lags behind its former rival NVIDIA. In August 2024, Intel announced its financial reports for the first half and second quarter of 2024. Intel's Q2 2024 revenue was $12.8 billion, a decrease of 1% from the same period last year's $12.9 billion; The gross profit margin was 35.4%, compared to 35.8% in the same period last year. It is reported that after the release of the financial report, Intel fell 19% in after hours trading. According to data from Tonghuashun, Intel's stock price has fallen by a range of 21.48% since August 1st.