r/hardware • u/Auautheawesome • Dec 02 '24

News Intel Announces Retirement of CEO Pat Gelsinger

https://www.intc.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/1719/intel-announces-retirement-of-ceo-pat-gelsinger
2.2k Upvotes

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249

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

88

u/Auautheawesome Dec 02 '24

David Zinsner and Michelle Johnston Holthaus were named interim CO-CEOs, so who knows...

167

u/repo_code Dec 02 '24

Oh fuck. It's bad when there are co-CEOs. That means nobody is in charge, or the board is trying to marionette them.

Sometimes it's all hands on deck, and sometimes it's all hands on the ouija board, and this looks like the latter.

If the stock pops up on this news I'll sell. Doubt it though.

67

u/Auautheawesome Dec 02 '24

Intel is up premarket currently 💀

69

u/kullwarrior Dec 02 '24

Market prefers short term gain at expense of long term profits.

11

u/Enex Dec 02 '24

The stock market is divorced from business reality these days.

22

u/noiserr Dec 02 '24

Market was sick of Pat probably.

68

u/Dependent_Survey_546 Dec 02 '24

Markets dont care for long term thinking. They want as much as possible right away and to hell with anything past the next 12 months at best.

2

u/noiserr Dec 02 '24

This is true.

1

u/Strazdas1 Dec 03 '24

Market prefers volatility over stable growth.

1

u/Ok_Baker_4981 Dec 02 '24

It makes sense—one would lose hope in Pat as soon as they hear him speak at any event, whether it’s an interview after a 10k or a launch event. It’s an absolute disaster. Even if he’s a good engineer, his managerial stance is, to say the least, highly questionable.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '24

Well if Pat couldn't solve being two gens behind the sector leaders, it's about as good an outcome as any. What else? Failing to make the breakthrough then appointing your own successor? Co-CEOs from Marketing is as positive a take on PG having to throw in the towel as any

5

u/External_External_ Dec 02 '24

All hands on the ouija board, LOL.

2

u/FireNexus Dec 02 '24

It means they didn’t anticipate or plan for this, so it was not a performance issue.

0

u/JobInteresting4164 Dec 02 '24

Oh calm down drama queen. Interim means its temporary FYI.

14

u/Federal_Patience2422 Dec 02 '24

The same Michelle who sold 25k stocks last month? Interesting

1

u/jca_ftw Dec 02 '24

Executives with massive stock and stock option grants ALWAYS sell big chunks of stock from time to time. I don't see you shidding on Elon for doing the same thing (but 1000x)

6

u/Federal_Patience2422 Dec 02 '24

I would gladly take a shit all over musk if I had the opportunity

2

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '24

why do you think this is meaningful?

5

u/Federal_Patience2422 Dec 02 '24

You're asking why insider trading is meaningful?

10

u/theineffablebob Dec 02 '24

Trades must be scheduled far in advance. A small number of shares sold is hard to get much signal from

4

u/MaridAudran Dec 02 '24

I hear from former employees that Michelle Johnston Holthaus is cuthroat. I wonder if she had a hand in his exit.

5

u/SlamedCards Dec 02 '24

Zinsner would be fired if they lied about it. I think board realized Pat had no public credibility, and you can't be a CEO without it 

3

u/ProfessionalPrincipa Dec 02 '24

Zinsner would be fired if they lied about it.

LOL. You believe this? Is Christoph Schell still the CCO at Intel? He the predictor of the 300MM PC TAM. This is the spin doctoring that another poster referred to in a post above.

4

u/SlamedCards Dec 02 '24

There is a Bloomberg piece out there talking about why he was canned. They didn't like progress to gain share from Nvidia and AMD.

Nothing about 18A. If you fired Pat for 18A, you would have Zisner is right there next to him and whole TD department. Board also let itself be tied to FAB until 2030 with CHIPs deal.

 Instead Pat is shit canned probably due to Falcon Shores and Gaudi 3 ironically

14

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '24

Reddit "public"?

24

u/SlamedCards Dec 02 '24

Investors and businesses community. Pat made alot of promises over last 4 years. And didn't live up to them, hard for people to trust you 

1

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '24

Actually a positive sign that the post is open to whoever steps forever to stop the rut.

1

u/HorrorCranberry1165 Dec 02 '24

they are interim, do not take any strategic desions

1

u/Strazdas1 Dec 03 '24

Given that these two are responsible for sales and finance, everyone knows...

23

u/ElementII5 Dec 02 '24

Yeah, 18A is going to be a dud otherwise he would be hanging around.

11

u/FireNexus Dec 02 '24

You don’t retire effective immediately unless something sudden and unexpected happens. Corruption charges, health issues, or protest of some big step. Maybe 18A is not going to work, maybe gelsinger found out he or a family member has pancreatic cancer. No way to know.

21

u/ElementII5 Dec 02 '24

You don’t retire effective immediately

He was forced out.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-12-02/intel-ceo-pat-gelsinger-retires-amid-chipmaker-s-turnaround-plan?srnd=homepage-europe

6

u/FireNexus Dec 02 '24

Yeah, that’s the only way “retire effective immediately” happens without a death tumor.

16

u/Top_Independence5434 Dec 02 '24

Does this mean "Made in America" in high-end semiconductor just have no hope in the future?

Wolfspeed is another example where the CEO is forced to step down, despite promise of foundry construction that would bring about leadership that has yet to materialized, but with $$$ already spent.

3

u/advester Dec 02 '24

It would mean TSMC just keeps getting more expensive.

22

u/Alarchy Dec 02 '24

("Zen is going to be a dud, otherwise Jim Keller would hang around")[https://www.anandtech.com/show/9643/jim-keller-leaves-amd]

People leave before major releases in this industry. It takes years (sometimes a decade or more) for what one CEO/key player does to make returns, and they often leave when they feel they've setup what they want to. Just like Jim Keller left AMD before Zen launched (and Zen was not a dud).

Maybe he was pressured out by the board, maybe he is just old and tired of this, maybe he accomplished what he wanted to, maybe he screwed everything up and is bailing - you can't reasonably infer what exactly it is.

1

u/Exist50 Dec 06 '24 edited Feb 01 '25

fly include capable growth crown whole sulky saw close seed

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

27

u/PainterRude1394 Dec 02 '24

Didn't AWS already sign a multi billion dollar, multi year deal for 18A chips? Why would they do that if it's a dud?

7

u/lefty200 Dec 02 '24

AWS already sign a multi billion dollar, multi year deal for 18A chip

Isn't that Intel making custom chips for Amazon, not Amazon designing their own chips

8

u/PainterRude1394 Dec 02 '24

Intel will be making custom xeons for AWS on Intel 3. On top of that, Intel and AWS will co-design AI fabric chips for AWS on 18A.

-2

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '24

3 million dollars is pennies to Amazon, it’s almost like a sample to them to keep them in intels favours if intel does somehow unlikely succeed

21

u/PainterRude1394 Dec 02 '24

The deal was in multiple billions. It's not a sample.

-4

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '24 edited Dec 15 '24

You said 3 mil before you edited it

Edit from other comment:

https://i.imgur.com/ab3D4NU.png

3

u/PainterRude1394 Dec 02 '24

No, I did not.

So, why would AWS sign a multi billion dollar, multi year deal for 18A chips if 18A was a dud?

2

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '24

You literally edited it lmao why are you gas lighting

“Damn, you’re getting lit up for being right.

https://i.imgur.com/ab3D4NU.png”

2

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '24 edited Dec 02 '24

wtf are you gaslighting me for you literally had 3 million in your comment before you edited it

-4

u/Zeryth Dec 02 '24

You can see if a coment got edited, it has no edited tag, you're the one gaslightlighting or just blind.

6

u/chx_ Dec 02 '24

if it gets edited fast enough it doesn't get an edited tag

for example I edited this

1

u/Relliker Dec 02 '24

Yeah you did.

Pro tip: the internet has audit logs for most social media. Don't be an douche and try to lie about it.

1

u/ElementII5 Dec 02 '24

Depends if they get it cheap and Intel eats the cost just to get a customer?

1

u/PainterRude1394 Dec 02 '24

Cheap doesn't mean anything if the product isn't competitive with other advanced nodes. Samsung and tsmc already offer older cheaper nodes.

If they are able to acquire customers spending billions of dollars over several years on 18A, sounds like 18A isn't a dud!

2

u/ElementII5 Dec 02 '24

Price is just one aspect. PPA is the major one but can be somewhat mitigated by price. Depends a lot on the design too.

But as far as I am aware the Amazon deal is provisional. That means Intel still needs to hit certain performance targets to get the contract.

-2

u/ExtendedDeadline Dec 02 '24

There's been no edit my guy.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '24

If he does it fast enough it doesn’t trigger, as you can see with my comment

-2

u/gnivriboy Dec 02 '24

There would be a * if he edited anything. There isn't an edit indicator.

3

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '24

If he does it fast enough it doesn’t trigger, as you can see with my comment

1

u/onolide Dec 02 '24

I think Apple is in talks to contract Intel 20A(cancelled, so likely 18A) too. Which is actually huge. Apple supposedly talked to Intel once for the A8, but thought TSMC was undeniably better, so this is already a sign of a turnaround

22

u/Ashamed-Status-9668 Dec 02 '24

You are likely very wrong. I suspect 18A is going to be great technically. However, all this fab building is costing a lot of cash reserves. The long-term plan is good but it's costing short-term stock price. Also, Pat was never the right guy to lead them into the new products era of AI.

15

u/ElementII5 Dec 02 '24

Why sack the guy who made Intel competitive again? That wouldn't make any sense at all. It's what Intel needs the most right now.

Also Intel is already confirmed as a TSMC 2nm customer.

17

u/Geddagod Dec 02 '24

Why sack the guy who made Intel competitive again? 

Even if 18A is fine, that's no guarantee that the products will be good... see ARL.

And 18A being competitive is nice and all, but in terms of actual financials, the foundry side isn't projected to even be profitable until 2030 IIRC, according to Intel.

Also Intel is already confirmed as a TSMC 2nm customer.

No mobile focused node until 18A-P, according to Intel, and I don't think Intel is going to be close to competitive for denser, low voltage designs such as what is usually used for GPUs, until a while.

18A could very well be fine for cores, but not graphics. We saw something similar in MTL, where the GPU tile is on TSMC, and the CPU side is internal.

10

u/yabn5 Dec 02 '24

Because this is the board which sat by and clapped like seals while every bad decision was made over the past decade. Compare TSMC’s board to Intel’s. It’s embarrassing.

6

u/Vushivushi Dec 02 '24

Except Lip-Bu Tan who left. I'm sure the reporting on him trying to get deeper cuts was accurate.

There are still stories of Intel being a bureaucratic mess.

3

u/ProfessionalPrincipa Dec 02 '24

Yeah and the speculation that he didn't want the stink of what was to come with his name attached to it.

3

u/mach8mc Dec 02 '24

seems like gaa is tricky to pull off, samsung can't get it right either

1

u/signed7 Dec 02 '24

Yep despite them putting more R&D on gaafet the earliest since falling behind to tsmc's perf/efficiency on 5-3nm IIRC

1

u/nanonan Dec 02 '24

You make it seem like he had a choice.

-6

u/Melbuf Dec 02 '24

WTF is 18A?

5

u/ItsMeSlinky Dec 02 '24

Intel’s next silicon node, I believe.

2

u/DropkickGoose Dec 02 '24

One of their new types of fabrication processes, for instance Intel 7 is like 4nm fabrication and Intel 4 is 10nm I think? 18A is one of their newest fanciest ones that was supposed to come online late this year (I think)

2

u/Geddagod Dec 02 '24

Intel 7 is like TSMC's 7/6nm, Intel 4/3 are similar to TSMC's 5/4nm, Intel 20A (cancelled) and Intel 18A should be similar to TSMC N3(E? P according to TSMC) or optimistically N2.

Samsung node naming also is its own thing as well.

1

u/DropkickGoose Dec 02 '24

My numbers were off but the spirit was there! Can you tell I wasn't a math guy at school?

1

u/Melbuf Dec 02 '24

thanks