PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar 26, 2025--
Playground Global, a leading venture capital firm focused on early-stage deep tech, today announced that Pat Gelsinger is joining the firm as General Partner. A visionary leader in computing and semiconductor innovation, Gelsinger brings more than 45 years of experience driving technological advancements, most recently as CEO of Intel and previously as CEO of VMware.
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At Playground, Gelsinger will invest alongside fellow General Partners Peter Barrett, Jory Bell and Bruce Leak, take board seats, mentor CEOs and lend his technical and operational expertise across the portfolio. Playground has over $1.2B in assets under management. Currently, the team is deploying capital from Fund III, a $410 million fund closed at the end of 2023, focused on Seed and Series A companies across next-gen compute, automation, energy transition, and engineered biology. Gelsinger’s appointment enhances Playground’s ability to identify and scale pioneering technologies, ensuring founders have the resources, expertise, and support needed to push the boundaries of what’s possible.
In addition to his General Partner role at Playground, Gelsinger will become a Board Member and Executive Chair of Playground portfolio company xLight, a pioneer in free electron lasers. xLight is developing an extreme ultraviolet light source to drive the next generation of semiconductor manufacturing with unprecedented precision and efficiency.
Gelsinger’s experience and insights will be instrumental across Playground’s entire portfolio. A standout is PsiQuantum, which is building the world’s first utility-scale, million-qubit quantum computer. Advances in next-generation computing are driving breakthroughs across multiple industries—including engineered biology, a key investment focus at Playground led by Jory Bell and Ben Kim. As one example, Strand Therapeutics is developing programmable mRNA therapies to precisely target cells and enable more effective treatments for cancer and other diseases.
“Deep tech investments are the fuel of tomorrow’s economy and the fuel of US leadership,” said Pat Gelsinger, General Partner at Playground Global. “I couldn't be more excited to partner with the Playground team and this next generation of brilliant founders and technologists as we invest in tomorrow. Together, we will improve the lives of all through the power of technology.”
“Civilization runs on semiconductors, and few people have had as much influence on the evolution of computing as Pat Gelsinger,” said Peter Barrett, Co-Founder and General Partner at Playground Global. “Pat is an engineer’s engineer. He has not only designed and shaped the future of the industry, he has propelled America’s technological leadership. His unique experience and vision make him the perfect fit for Playground’s mission: to advance society by accelerating deep tech innovation.”
Gelsinger’s career has been defined by transformative leadership in the technology industry. As CEO of Intel, he championed efforts to revitalize U.S. semiconductor manufacturing, rebalance the global semiconductor supply chain, and led the company’s strategic pivot to regain process technology leadership. At VMware, he was instrumental in driving the company’s transition to hybrid cloud and software-defined infrastructure. He has played a critical role in many generations of microprocessors driving Intel to unquestioned leadership and in key standards like USB and WiFi. His tenure at both companies solidified his reputation as one of the industry’s most influential leaders.
Outside of Playground, Gelsinger serves as the Executive Chair and Head of Technology at Gloo, a leading technology platform connecting the faith ecosystem to advance human flourishing and the development of values-based AI. He and his wife Linda are also actively engaged in numerous philanthropic efforts around the world.
About Playground Global: Playground Global is a deep tech venture capital firm with $1.2 billion in assets under management, backing early-stage startups solving fundamental challenges in next-generation compute, automation, energy transition, and engineered biology. Started in 2015 and based in Palo Alto, CA., Playground’s mission is to move civilization forward through the power of science and technology. More than just investors, Playground provides hands-on technical and operational support, helping founders turn ideas and innovations into companies with enduring impact. The firm’s portfolio includes PsiQuantum, MosaicML (acquired by Databricks), d-Matrix, Agility Robotics, Ideon, Ultima Genomics, and Strand Therapeutics, among many others. Learn more at www.playground.vc.
Playground partners: Peter Barrett, Pat Gelsinger, Jory Bell, Bruce Leak, Ben Kim, March 26, 2025 (Credit: Scott Murphy)
PARIS (AP) — A French court on Monday barred Marine Le Pen from seeking public office for five years, with immediate effect, for embezzlement -- a hammer blow to the far-right leader’s presidential hopes and an earthquake for French politics.
Although Le Pen can appeal the verdict, such a move won’t suspend her ineligibility, which could rule her out of the 2027 presidential race.
The court ruling was a political as well as a judicial temblor for France, hobbling one of the leading contenders to succeed President Emmanuel Macron at the end of his second and final term, scheduled to last into 2027. So broad were the political implications that even some of Le Pen's political opponents reacted by saying that court had gone too far.
Le Pen herself wasn't around to hear the chief judge pronounce the sentence that threw her career into a tailspin. By then, she'd already strode out of the courtroom, when the judge first indicated that Le Pen would be barred from office, without saying straight away for how long.
Although Le Pen didn't immediately comment, her supporters were quick to express disapproval. Jordan Bardella, her 29-year-old protégé who could replace her on the ballot in 2027 if she can't stand, said on X that Le Pen “is being unjustly condemned” and that French democracy “is being executed.”
Hungary’s populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán quickly took to social media to express his support, posting “Je suis Marine!” — I am Marine — on X.
Among political opponents of Le Pen who expressed unease was conservative lawmaker Laurent Wauquiez, who said the court ruling put “a very heavy weight on our democracy.”
The sentence could prevent her from running for president in 2027, a scenario she has previously described as a “political death.”
Only an appeal ruling that overturns the ban on public office could restore her hopes of standing. But with the election just two years away, time is running out and there’s no guarantee that an appeals court would rule more favorably.
The verdict was a resounding defeat for Le Pen's party. The judge also handed down guilty verdicts for embezzling public funds to eight other current or former members of her party who, like her, previously served as European Parliament lawmakers. Also convicted were 12 other people who served as parliamentary aides for Le Pen and what is now the National Rally party, formerly the National Front.
The judge said Le Pen had been at the heart of “a system” that her party used to siphon off EU parliament money. The judge said Le Pen and other co-defendants didn't enrich themselves personally. But the ruling described the embezzlement as “a democratic bypass" that deceived the parliament and voters.
From the front row of the court, Le Pen had initially shown no immediate reaction when the judge first declared her guilty. But she grew more agitated as the verdict was then delivered in greater detail. She nodded her head in disagreement as the judge said Le Pen’s party had illegally used European Parliament money for its own benefit.
“Incredible,” Le Pen she whispered at one point. She then abruptly left without warning, picking up her bag and striding out, her heels click-click-clicking on the hardwood floor, leaving disbelief in her wake.
The court sentenced Le Pen to two years' imprisonment under house arrest, but it was the political ramifications of ineligibility that dealt the biggest blow to her foreseeable political future.
Le Pen and 24 other officials from the National Rally were accused of having used money intended for EU parliamentary aides to pay staff who worked for the party between 2004 and 2016, in violation of the 27-nation bloc’s regulations. Le Pen and her co-defendants denied wrongdoing.
Le Pen, 56, was runner-up to President Emmanuel Macron in the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections, and her party’s electoral support has grown in recent years.
During the nine-week trial that took place in late 2024, she argued that ineligibility “would have the effect of depriving me of being a presidential candidate" and disenfranchise her supporters.
“There are 11 million people who voted for the movement I represent. So tomorrow, potentially, millions and millions of French people would see themselves deprived of their candidate in the election,” she told the panel of three judges.
Le Pen's seeming natural successor in 2027 elections would be Jordan Bardella, Le Pen’s 29-year-old protégé who succeeded her at the helm of the party in 2021.
Le Pen denied accusations she was at the head of the system meant to siphon off EU parliament money to benefit her party, which she led from 2011 to 2021. She argued instead that it was acceptable to adapt the work of the aides paid by the European Parliament to the needs of the lawmakers, including some political work related to the party.
Hearings showed that some EU money was used to pay for Le Pen’s bodyguard — who was once her father's bodyguard — as well as her personal assistant.
Prosecutors requested a two-year prison sentence and a five-year period of ineligibility for Le Pen.
Le Pen said she felt they were “only interested” in preventing her from running for president.
Leicester reported from Le Pecq, France. Thomas Adamson in Paris and Justin Spike in Budapest contributed.
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen arrives at a Paris court expected to deliver a verdict in an embezzlement case that could shake up French politics and derail far-right leader Marine Le Pen's career Monday, March 31, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, left, arrives at a Paris court expected to deliver a verdict in an embezzlement case that could shake up French politics and derail far-right leader Marine Le Pen's career Monday, March 31, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen arrives at a Paris court expected to deliver a verdict in an embezzlement case that could shake up French politics and derail far-right leader Marine Le Pen's career Monday, March 31, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
FILE - This courtroom sketch by Valentin Pasquier shows French far-right leader Marine Le Pen during his trial, facing court on charges of embezzling EU funds at the Paris court house, in Paris France, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Valentin Pasquier, File)
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen arrives at a Paris court expected to deliver a verdict in an embezzlement case that could shake up French politics and derail far-right leader Marine Le Pen's career Monday, March 31, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
FILE - French far-right leader Marine Le Pen arrives at the courtroom for the trial over the suspected embezzlement of European Parliament funds, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, File)
