Intel (INTC) is racing against the clock to find a new chief executive who can launch the company into the artificial intelligence age — or risk sinking into irrelevance.
A series of strategic missteps dating back to the early 2000s and a failure to build cutting-edge technologies culminated in the once-dominant chipmaker’s dramatic crash in 2024, when its stock plummeted 55%.
Its board ousted CEO Pat Gelsinger in December and appointed two temporary co-CEOs.
The move laid bare the board’s lack of a coherent strategy and called into question the fate of Gelsinger's bold turnaround plan: Opening up Intel’s manufacturing business to make chips for external customers (i.e. operating a foundry).
“I think it's the board that should have been fired, not him,” analyst William Lazonick, who has written extensively on Intel for the Institute of New Economic Thinking, told Yahoo Finance.
Since Gelsinger’s exit, the board has brought on two semiconductor experts, former ASML CEO Eric Meurice and Microchip chairman Steve Sanghi. Prior to their addition, only two of the 11 board members had semiconductor industry experience, per Citi analyst Christopher Danley.
A Wall Street Intel analyst said Meurice and Sanghi are "already ... challenging the plans [and] the processes within Intel." They asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the topic.
Intel declined to comment on its CEO search.
A series of strategic missteps dating back to the early 2000s and a failure to build cutting-edge technologies culminated in the once-dominant chipmaker’s dramatic crash in 2024, when its stock plummeted 55%.
Its board ousted CEO Pat Gelsinger in December and appointed two temporary co-CEOs.
The move laid bare the board’s lack of a coherent strategy and called into question the fate of Gelsinger's bold turnaround plan: Opening up Intel’s manufacturing business to make chips for external customers (i.e. operating a foundry).
“I think it's the board that should have been fired, not him,” analyst William Lazonick, who has written extensively on Intel for the Institute of New Economic Thinking, told Yahoo Finance.
Since Gelsinger’s exit, the board has brought on two semiconductor experts, former ASML CEO Eric Meurice and Microchip chairman Steve Sanghi. Prior to their addition, only two of the 11 board members had semiconductor industry experience, per Citi analyst Christopher Danley.
A Wall Street Intel analyst said Meurice and Sanghi are "already ... challenging the plans [and] the processes within Intel." They asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the topic.
Intel declined to comment on its CEO search.