Intel’s incoming CEO Patrick Gelsinger is set to take the helm on Monday. Although he was only officially appointed a month ago, this isn’t the first time he has been offered the position. Since 2013, his name has come up as a leading candidate, but Gelsinger had refused and preferred to stay on as CEO of VMware, where he managed to double the company’s size. Now, he’s getting a whole different Intel than in 2013, one that may not be as focused.
The chip making giant’s hazy future is the result of a decade of poor or undecisive business decisions. There is hardly a sector that the chip giant hasn’t tried entering: computer processors, smartphone processors, computer manufacturing (such as the NUC line of mini PCs), wearables, drones, autonomous cars (Mobileye), navigation (Moovit), sporting event photography, cloud computing, network cards, modems, graphics cards, drivers and software, memory chips, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, big data, virtual reality, a