Intel president and CEO Paul Otellini will retire next May, the company announced Monday. Otellini has spent about 40 years working at Intel, seven of them as chief executive.

“I’ve been privileged to lead one of the world’s greatest companies,” he said in a statement. “After almost four decades with the company and eight years as CEO, it’s time to move on and transfer Intel’s helm to a new generation of leadership. I look forward to working with Andy, the board and the management team during the six-month transition period, and to being available as an advisor to management after retiring as CEO.”

Otellini will spend the next six months working on an “orderly leadership transition”, the company said. Its board will be looking both inside and outside of the company for replacement candidates.

He was the company's fifth CEO, succeeding Craig Barrett in 2005. Prior to this appointment, he had served as Intel's president and COO since 2002.

Since joining the company in 1974, he has managed multiple of its businesses, including the PC and server processor division as well as global sales and marketing.

During Otellini’s tenure as CEO, the company generated US$107bn cash from operations, made $23.5bn in dividend payments and grew its quarterly dividend by more than 180% (from $0.08 to $0.225). Its annual revenue grew from $38.8bn in 2005 to $54bn in 2011 (about 40%).

Meanwhile, its earnings per share grew went from $1.40 per year to $2.39, during the six year period.

On the product level, Otellini’s tenure as chief of the world’s largest processor company was highlighted by the introduction of Ultrabook PCs, an expanded presence in security, software and mobile communications, first smartphones and tablets running on Intel processors and a massive cloud infrastructure powered by Intel chips.