Gelsinger spent most of his career at Intel, rising to chief technology officer before leaving to run VMWare in 2012 and then returning as CEO in 2021. He was generally well respected by Wall Street and industry insiders, but on his watch, the stock underperformed the market as Intel lost ground in the AI race to Nvidia.

Intel stock dropped 6% on Tuesday as investors reacted to the CEO's departure. Wall Street analysts say there's more uncertainty ahead for the chip maker.

When Intel hired Gelsinger in 2021 to revive the chipmaker’s fortunes, he received a pay package that would have been worth as much as $206 million if he had met performance targets.