architecture designed by Gelsinger in the 1980s Gelsinger first joined Intel at 18 years old in 1979 just after earning an associate degree from Lincoln Tech. where he maintains a home. Gelsinger was the lead architect of the 4th generation
80486 processor He launched the
Intel Developer Forum conference as a counterpart to
Microsoft's
WinHEC. In September 2009, he left Intel to join EMC as president and chief operating officer. Gelsinger rejoined Intel as their new CEO on February 15, 2021, after previously having a 30 year-long career at the company in various technical engineering and leadership roles. This followed reorganization pressure, due to languishing share prices, from its newest activist investor
Third Point Management. Gelsinger led Intel's course correction, including construction of two $20 billion Arizona manufacturing plants (fabs) for its planned expansion. Media reported positive responses to Gelsinger's appointment and credited the decision for driving Intel share prices up nearly 8%. On March 23, 2021, Intel shares rose over 6% following Gelsinger’s remarks regarding company strategy. In May 2021, Gelsinger was interviewed by
Lesley Stahl of
60 Minutes. Gelsinger stated that Intel plans to catch up with Taiwanese chip manufacturer
TSMC and Korean chip manufacturer
Samsung within the next five years. He announced a planned three and a half-billion dollar upgrade to
Intel's fab in New Mexico. In March 2022, Gelsinger personally announced the start of an entirely new fab built for roughly $20 billion near
Magdeburg,
Saxony-Anhalt, Germany to employ 7,000 people during construction work and 3,000 people in production work in 2027. On December 1, 2024, Gelsinger stepped down from the position of Intel CEO and from the company’s board of directors. CFO
David Zinsner and executive
Michelle Johnston Holthaus were named interim co-CEOs, while board member
Frank Yeary assumed interim executive Chairship as the company conducts a search for a permanent new CEO. Holthaus has also been named to the newly-created CEO of Intel products, which will oversee, among other things, its data center and AI product efforts. On March 24, 2025, Gelsinger was named as the executive chair and the head of technology of church-focused messaging platform Gloo, where he was a board member and investor, and which he calls a "faith ecosystem". On March 26, 2025, Gelsinger also announced he had become general partner at the venture capital firm
Playground Global. == Honors and appointments ==