Pat Gelsinger CEO
The US semiconductor company Intel replaces the CEO after a year. It is a will to break through the crisis that is giving the industry leadership to rivals Samsung Electronics, TSMC, Nvidia, and AMD. Earlier, Third Point, an American activist hedge fund, sent a letter to Intel’s board of directors calling for major reforms.
Intel announced on the 13th (local time) that CEO Bob Swan will resign from his position on the 15th of next month, and will recruit Pat Gelsinger, CEO of cloud computing company VMware, as the new CEO. Gelsinger is a person who has been with Intel for over 30 years and has become the Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Immediately after the announcement, he said, “It’s a great honor to come back home as CEO in a period of critical innovation that accelerates the digitalization of everything.”
After the news of the CEO change, Intel shares closed at $56.95, up 6.97% from the previous day. On the other hand, the share price of VMware, where Gelsinger is leaving, fell 6.79% to close at $133.20.
Local media interpreted that the CEO change was made in the face of difficulties, such as Intel losing its position as the largest semiconductor company in the United States. Intel has already been overtaken by rival Nvidia in terms of market cap, and AMD, which was ahead of the past by a large gap, is also eroding its market share. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) explained that the competition for the development of cutting-edge semiconductors is also being beaten by TSMC in Taiwan and Samsung Electronics in Korea.
In recent years, as Apple decided to install in-house developed chips in its computers instead of Intel products, and Amazon and Google gradually reduced their dependence on Intel, the crisis aggravated. Last month, the US activist hedge fund, Third Point, sent a letter to Intel’s board of directors, saying, “Intel has lost its manufacturing leadership,” demanding countermeasures. Thirdpoint owns 0.5% of Intel. However, Bloomberg reported that the replacement of the CEO was not a requirement of Third Point, but decided by Intel’s board of directors.
“We thought it was the right time to change our leadership,” said Ohmy Ishirak, chairman of Intel’s board of directors.
Intel is attracting attention as it is recently reviewing plans to consign its core semiconductor chips to Samsung Electronics or TSMC. Bloomberg reported that the matter would be decided within two weeks.
Reporter Ahn Jung-rak [email protected]
Ⓒ Hankyung.com prohibits unauthorized reproduction and redistribution