Gelsinger was raised on family farms by his parents, June and Paul Gelsinger, in rural Robesonia, in an Amish and Mennonite part of Pennsylvania. As a teenager, he received the high score on a Lincoln Tech electronics technology test, winning an early-admission scholarship. There, he earned the remainder of high school credits for graduation and worked at a fledgling WFMZ-TV Channel 69 as a technician. Gelsinger moved to Silicon Valley in California to work at Intel as a quality-control technician, at age 18. While at Intel, he earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, graduating magna cum laude from Santa Clara University in 1983. Gelsinger was the architect of the 80486 processor, introduced in 1989. He became the first CTO of Intel in 2001, leading key technology developments, including Wi-Fi, USB, Intel Core and Intel Xeon processors, and 14 chip projects. In September 2009, he left Intel to join EMC as president and chief operating officer, but rejoined Intel as CEO in 2021.