Pat Gelsinger

Gelsinger earned an associate degree in electrical engineering from Lincoln Technical Institute and began his career at Intel in 1979; he later earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Santa Clara University and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Stanford UniversityStanford UniversityStanford University is a research university in California founded by Leland and Jane Stanford in 1885 and opened in 1891.Open the full entry.⁠[1]

He spent about 30 years at Intel, where he was the architect of the original 80486 processor, led 14 microprocessor programs and played key roles in the Core and Xeon families, eventually becoming the company’s first chief technology officer. He also served as senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s Digital Enterprise Group.⁠[2][1]

He holds eight design patents in communications, computer architecture and VLSI design. In 2008 he was named an IEEE Fellow.⁠[1][3]

After leaving Intel, Gelsinger served as president and chief operating officer of EMC Information Infrastructure Products at EMC.⁠[2]

Gelsinger published the book Balancing Family, Faith and Work in 2003; a second edition, titled The Juggling Act, appeared in 2008.⁠[3]

From 2012 he was CEO of VMware; Intel stated in 2021 that he had nearly tripled VMware’s annual revenue during his tenure.⁠[2]

At VMware he drove the company’s shift to hybrid cloud and software-defined infrastructure.⁠[4]

On January 13, 2021, Intel announced that Gelsinger would become CEO and join its board on February 15, 2021, succeeding Bob Swan. He said, “I am thrilled to rejoin and lead Intel forward at this important time for the company, our industry and our nation.”⁠[2]

As Intel CEO he championed revitalizing U.S. semiconductor manufacturing, rebalancing the global supply chain and regaining process technology leadership.⁠[4]

On December 2, 2024, Intel announced that Gelsinger had retired as CEO and stepped down from the board effective December 1, 2024, with David Zinsner and Michelle Johnston Holthaus named interim co-CEOs and independent chair Frank Yeary named interim executive chair. Gelsinger said, “Today is, of course, bittersweet as this company has been my life for the bulk of my working career.”⁠[5]

On March 26, 2025, Playground Global, a deep tech venture capital firm in Palo Alto, California, announced that Gelsinger had joined as a general partner, investing alongside general partners Peter Barrett, Jory Bell and Bruce Leak, taking board seats and mentoring CEOs. He also became a board member and executive chair of xLight, a Playground portfolio company developing an extreme ultraviolet light source based on free electron lasers.⁠[4]

Outside Playground Global, he serves as executive chair and head of technology at Gloo, a technology platform connecting the faith ecosystem.⁠[4]

Describing the new job, he said, “At Playground, they have an engineer's playground. I'm an engineer's engineer, so it felt right.” He also said he had signed two term sheets in his first week.⁠[6]

On October 9, 2026, Andreessen HorowitzAndreessen HorowitzAndreessen Horowitz (a16z) is a venture capital firm founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. It invests from the seed stage through the growth stage and provides operational support to its portfolio companies.Open the full entry (a16z) released “Former Intel CEO: Why This is the Best Time to Build Hardware” on its YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry channel, in which a16z’s Raghu Raghuram and Guido Appenzeller spoke with Gelsinger; Erik TorenbergErik TorenbergErik Torenberg is a tech entrepreneur, investor, and podcast host who is a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), where he invests and is responsible for marketing and the ecosystem network. He was the first employee of Product Hunt and founded or co-founded On Deck, Village Global, and Turpentine, long combining founder communities, expert content, and early-stage investing.Open the full entry is listed as the program’s host.⁠[7]

Drawing on his experience designing Intel’s 386 and 486 processors, Gelsinger discussed how AI could change chip design, bottlenecks in manufacturing, memory bandwidth, advanced packaging and power, and why the many specialized AI chips may eventually consolidate around a smaller number of architectures. Chapters included “From tech school to Intel at 18,” “Why HBM is a hideous memory,” “Energy capacity equals economic capacity” and “A VMware for agents.”⁠[7]

X: Public account: https://x.com/PGelsinger (opens in a new window).⁠[7]