Intel announced Monday that CEO Pat Gelsinger has retired, effective Dec. 1, and stepped down from the company's board of directors.

Intel executives David Zinsner and Michelle Johnston Holthaus have been named interim co-CEOs. Zinsner is Intel's CFO, while Holthaus is general manager of Intel's client computing group.

Holthaus has also been appointed to the newly created position of CEO of Intel Products, a division spanning the chipmaker's consumer-focused organization as well as its data center, artificial intelligence, network, and edge businesses.

Frank Yeary, independent chair of the board of Intel, will become interim executive chair during the transition period. Intel says that leadership at Intel Foundry, its chip design and manufacturing wing, will remain unchanged, and that the Intel board has formed a search committee to find a permanent successor to Gelsinger.

"Leading Intel has been the honor of my lifetime - this group of people is among the best and the brightest in the business, and I'm honored to call each and every one a colleague," Gelsinger said in a statement.

"Today is, of course, bittersweet as this company has been my life for the bulk of my working career. I can look back with pride at all that we have accomplished together. It has been a challenging year for all of us as we have made tough but necessary decisions to position Intel for the current market dynamics. I am forever grateful for the many colleagues around the world who I have worked with as part of the Intel family," he said.