Former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger calls for prayer and fasting for employees

Former Intel chief Pat Gelsinger, who stepped down from his leadership post a week ago, is inviting people to join him in prayer and fasting for the struggling chipmaker’s employees.

“Every Thursday I do a 24 hour prayer and fasting day,” Gelsinger wrote on X on Sunday morning. “This week I’d invite you to join me in praying and fasting for the 100K Intel employees as they navigate this difficult period. Intel and its team is of seminal importance to the future of the industry and US.”

The 63-year-old Gelsinger resigned from Intel and its subsidiary, Mobileye, on Dec. 1, after spending three decades of his career at the company, including the last four years as its CEO. The chipmaker has struggled amid the rise of rivals like Nvidia and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., and Gelsinger’s departure comes in the midst of a four-year turnaround plan aimed at bolstering Intel’s chipmaking competitiveness.

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Two senior leaders, David Zinsner and Michelle Johnston Holthaus, will serve as interim co-CEOs while the board conducts a search for a new chief executive, which has already begun. The company said it has already formed a search committee “and will work diligently and expeditiously” to find Gelsinger’s permanent replacement. 

Intel recently received billions of dollars in federal funds under the CHIPS Act, which provides grants, loans and tax credits to chipmakers aimed at returning more semiconductor manufacturing to the U.S. from overseas.

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The Commerce Department awarded nearly $8 billion in CHIPS Act funding to Intel a week before Gelsinger’s retirement, though that amount was smaller than the company’s initial award under the law due to it receiving a $3 billion contract from the Department of Defense in September.

The company had been expected all along to be the chief beneficiary of the tens of billions in taxpayer subsidies allocated under the bipartisan CHIPS Act passed two years ago. But instead of creating the jobs promised under the policy, it slashed its workforce by 15% in August. 

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Some experts have expressed concern over the federal government sending a massive amount of taxpayer dollars to the struggling chipmaker. Intel’s stock price is currently down more than 56% year to date.