Intel Replaces Its Chief Executive After 2 Years

Chipmaker Intel said on Wednesday it would replace Chief Executive Officer Bob Swan with VMware Inc CEO Pat Gelsinger beginning February 15.

The company's shares were up more than 8 percent in morning trading.

Intel, long the world leader in chip-making technology, has lost its manufacturing edge in recent years and is now debating whether to outsource some of it flagship central processor unit chips, or CPUs, slated for release in 2023. Activist investor Third Point LLC last month sent Intel's board a letter asking it to consider whether to keep its chip design and manufacturing operations under one roof.

Gelsinger, a former Intel executive, has served as the CEO of VMware since 2012. During that time, he successfully guided the company, whose software helps companies squeeze more work out of data center servers, through the transition from privately owned data centers to public cloud providers, in part by striking a seminal deal with Amazon's Amazon Web Services.