Intel's David Zinsner Discusses Core Chip Strategy And Hunt For Next CEO
After Pat Gelsinger's abrupt resignation from Intel at the beginning of the week, the search is on for a replacement chief executive officer (CEO), and whoever that ends up being is likely to have some foundry experience. So says David Zinsner, Intel's chief financial officer (CFO) and executive vice president (EVP) who's now also serving as an interim co-CEO.
In comments made at the USB Global Technology Conference, Zinsner made clear that he's not participating in the hiring process, but has some ideas of what the board will be looking for in a candidate to fill Gelsinger's shoes.
"I'm not in the process, but I'm guess that the CEO will have ...both some capability around foundry as well as on the product side," Zinsner said, according to Reuters.
It's an interesting comment, largely because it's been reported that Gelsinger was ousted by the board (versus a true sudden and voluntary retirement) and multiple industry analysts have criticized the move because of Gelsinger's technical background.
"I’m not an equities analyst, but I told you so…. This one was so easy to predict. Board ghosts the CEO without an explanation or replacement and the stuck plummets. Investor’s only thoughts are what bad happened? Who can fill Pat’s shows? I talk to all of Intel’s largest customer’s executives. No one is cheering," Patrick Moorehead, founder and CEO of Moor Insights & Strategy, stated on X/Twitter in reference to Intel's stock dropping.
John Carmack, founder of Id Software and Armadillo Aerospace, echoed the sentiment in a social media post of his own.
"I’m concerned to see Pat Gelsinger ousted as Intel CEO. He wasn’t a firebrand visionary, and it wasn’t exactly going great, but he was deeply technical, and I don’t expect his replacement to equal him there. 'Business harder' isn’t going to return Intel to greatness, only technical achievement will," Carmack posted on X/Twitter.
Not everyone shares the same perspective—especially after Intel posted an historic loss last quarter—but we've seen a lot of opinions posted online that do, both from industry analysts and big names in tech in general (such as Carmack). And to their point, Gelsinger inherited a company that was in a rough spot after having made several missteps and conceding process leadership to AMD.
A major part of Gelsinger's vision when he took over as CEO was to focus more heavily on Intel's foundry business, and he spearheaded major long-term investments in that direction. Those were always going to take time to pay off.
According to Zinsner, next year will see better margins in Intel's foundry business, much of it fueled by Lunar Lake. He also said there would be more cost cutting, and a mix of higher margin wafers in 2025. We'll have to see how that pans out.
