After the surprising dismissal of CEO Pat Gelsinger on Monday, Intel is searching for a successor. According to consistent media reports, the board of directors is considering some external candidates: Lip-Bu Tan from Cadence Design Systems, who left the board in the summer after disagreements over Intel’s direction, and Matt Murphy, CEO of chip manufacturer Marvell Technologies.
It is reported that Intel has hired a headhunter firm to find the new CEO. The search is still in its early stages, and no candidate is a favorite, according to the news agency Reuters, citing company insiders. The search is said to focus on external candidates.
Historically, Intel’s CEOs have often been insiders. The exception: Bob Swan. He initially took over the leadership position temporarily after the resignation of Brian Krzanich and was officially appointed in 2019. Under Swan, Intel faced problems that Pat Gelsinger was supposed to solve starting in 2021.
Tan has a long career in the industry. The former CEO of the chip design company Cadence Design Systems had been a member of Intel’s board since 2022 and left the board in August after disagreements over Gelsinger’s strategy. Cadence Design Systems develops software and hardware for semiconductor design. Tan brought considerable expertise to Gelsinger’s plan to make Intel a leading chip contract manufacturer. However, there was disagreement over the specific implementation within Intel’s leadership. Tan apparently felt his years of experience were underappreciated and resigned in August.
Murphy, as CEO of the chip manufacturer Marvell, is another candidate for the top job at Intel. On Tuesday, Marvell reported quarterly figures that were better than expected. The company looks confidently to the rest of the fiscal year, and its stock price rose significantly.
With Gelsinger’s departure, Intel is reshuffling its cards. Previously, plans to split the company had failed due to the CEO’s resistance. Now, everything seems to be back on the table. The direction Intel will take is still completely open.
According to media reports, the board of directors has discussed several options in recent months. One of them: splitting Intel into chip designers and contract manufacturers. Gelsinger was against it. While the design division is likely to be attractive to investors, observers consider the foundry not so easily sellable.
A sale of the entire company was also apparently discussed. Qualcomm had expressed interest, but this had cooled off recently. If Intel now decides to sell some parts of the company, Qualcomm might at least take another look.
Candidates for a sale of company parts include Altera or Mobileye. Intel had acquired the FPGA specialist Altera in 2015, fully integrated it, and spun it off again in spring 2024, apparently with the aim of selling Altera. Mobileye, which develops systems for autonomous vehicles, was brought back to the stock market by owner Intel in 2022.
It is no coincidence that in this situation, Nvidia’s CFO speaks up and brings potential acquisitions into play. The company is booming thanks to AI and has a huge pile of money that needs to be invested. This could also be “a kind of merger or acquisition,” said Colette Kress at an investor conference on Tuesday.
Intel’s crisis also affects Germany: the chip factory planned in Magdeburg with billions in subsidies from the federal government will not be built for now. Under Gelsinger, the plans were put on hold. It was said in September that it would be for only two years. Now there is a crisis, and Intel is looking for a new leader and a new strategy. Magdeburg has to wait.