[News Figures] 'Engineer CEO' Pat Gelsinger Steps Up as Intel's Savior Pitcher

Pat Gelsinger, Intel Chief Executive Officer (CEO) / Photo by Intel YouTube Capture

"We will reclaim the great icon of the company that has played a crucial role in all aspects of technological advancement and make it a leader of the future once again."

This was the ambition expressed by Pat Gelsinger, Intel's 8th Chief Executive Officer (CEO), at his inauguration ceremony in February last year. More than a year after Intel, the representative comprehensive semiconductor company of the United States, declared its intention to reclaim the 'semiconductor throne,' the situation appears darker than before. Market share continues to decline, and reports have emerged that the company plans to lay off more than 10,000 employees. For Intel to navigate through the current turmoil and rise again as the 'world's number one semiconductor company,' it is a time when CEO Gelsinger's skills must shine more than ever.

'Engineer' CEO Stepping Up as Intel's Savior

CEO Gelsinger officially took office as Intel's CEO and board member on February 15 last year. At the inauguration, he emphasized, "Intel possesses a treasure trove of engineers and technology," and stated, "I believe Intel will ultimately become the future technology leader."

CEO Gelsinger was the savior brought in to rescue Intel, which had been struggling. In the past, Intel boasted a massive market share across all sectors of the computer industry, including PCs and servers, and dominated as the world's largest semiconductor company. However, it began to falter when faced with challenges from various domestic and international competitors. In semiconductor design, AMD and ARM started to take Intel's market share, and in advanced process technology, Intel fell behind TSMC.

Intel has recently faced intense competition from rivals and has struggled to avoid poor performance. / Photo by Yonhap News

Founded in 1968, Intel has had eight CEOs over its approximately 50-year corporate history. The three predecessors before CEO Gelsinger were all professional managers. At a time when Intel faced its worst crisis since its founding, the company put forward not a 'manager' but an 'engineer' as its leader.

CEO Gelsinger also aims to overcome the crisis by leveraging Intel's strength in technology. Since taking office, he has presented new growth strategies including ▲strengthening foundry competitiveness ▲collaboration with partners ▲securing new growth engines, and pledged to achieve an average annual sales growth of 10-15% by 2026. He also expressed ambition to realize the 'angstrom' process (a unit representing 0.1nm), which is much smaller than the 1-nanometer (nm) process currently considered the limit of semiconductor production.

Veteran Engineer Who Devoted His Youth to Intel

CEO Gelsinger is a veteran with 40 years of experience in the IT industry and a former Intel engineer. Born in 1962, he excelled in mathematics and science during high school and joined Intel as an engineer at the age of 17 without attending college. While working at Intel, he graduated from California State University, Santa Clara through flexible work arrangements and scholarship programs, and two years later earned a master's degree from Stanford University.

As an engineer, CEO Gelsinger led the design of the semiconductor processor known as the '486 computer.' Thanks to the powerful performance of this processor released in 1985, Intel was able to enjoy its heyday in the following years. Having contributed significantly to the company's growth, he became Intel's Chief Technology Officer (CTO) in 2001, leading various semiconductor projects and driving Intel's technological development.

Intel '486 Processor' led in development during the time CEO Gelsinger worked as an engineer. / Photo by Wikipedia capture

Although he devoted his youth to Intel's research positions, his experience is by no means limited to engineering. CEO Gelsinger left Intel in 2009 to become Chief Operating Officer (COO) of EMC, a data storage company. In 2012, he became CEO of VMware, a cloud computing company. Thus, he has gained comprehensive experience across the computer industry, including microprocessors, memory, and virtualization software.

Intel Facing Multiple Adversities... Will It Succeed in Reclaiming the 'Semiconductor Throne'?

Intel's outlook is not very bright at the moment. According to market research firm Omdia, Intel's semiconductor market share as of the second quarter was 9.4%, down 1.7 percentage points (p) from the previous quarter. The gap in market share with Samsung Electronics, the world's number one, has widened to 3.4 percentage points.

There have also been foreign media reports that Intel is preparing for large-scale restructuring due to poor performance. According to Bloomberg on the 11th (local time), Intel plans to proceed with layoffs after announcing its third-quarter earnings scheduled for the 27th of this month. Departments affected by the workforce reduction plan include sales and marketing. Bloomberg explained, "Intel's main business, PC semiconductors, is facing a sharp drop in demand," and "Intel is struggling to regain market share lost to competitors such as AMD."

However, it is premature to conclude that the 'Gelsinger-led' Intel is facing a shipwreck crisis. The technology development roadmap emphasized by CEO Gelsinger from the beginning of his tenure is progressing smoothly. At the 'Intel Innovation 2022' event held in California on the 27th of last month, CEO Gelsinger announced that the goal of applying as many as five new processes to semiconductor production over the next four years is on track. On that day, he also expressed confidence by stating, "Moore's Law is still alive."

The newly launched foundry business is also attracting large corporate customers. Following the announcement last year that it would produce chips for Qualcomm, a U.S. telecommunications chip design company, Intel signed a foundry contract in July with MediaTek, Taiwan's number one global smartphone chip designer.