STMicro's CEO kept the board — but Italy wanted him out anyway

In February 2025, the Italian government pushed to remove STMicroelectronics CEO Jean-Marc Chéry, citing underperformance and a 30% decline in the company's stock price over the previous year. Italy, a joint shareholder with France in the Franco-Dutch-Italian semiconductor company, argued that the board had failed to address the company's declining prospects amid industry headwinds.

The push for Chéry's dismissal exposed the fragility of STMicroelectronics' dual-shareholder governance structure. The company was founded as a merger of Italian and French state-backed semiconductor firms, and the two governments held significant influence over board appointments. The disagreement over Chéry's leadership created a public rift between the two shareholder states at a time when the European semiconductor industry was trying to present a unified front.

Chéry had led the company since 2018 and was credited with steering it through the global chip shortage of 2021-2023. However, the post-shortage downturn hit STMicroelectronics particularly hard, and the Italian government's patience ran out as the company's automotive and industrial chip sales declined. The situation was unresolved at the time of reporting, with Chéry remaining in post while the governance dispute continued.

The dual-shareholder governance split turned a CEO succession dispute into a public diplomatic crisis, deepening the damage.

The dual-shareholder governance structure meant that performance dissatisfaction could become a bilateral diplomatic issue rather than a board decision

Italy's push for a CEO change was made public before the board had reached a decision, turning a governance matter into a crisis of confidence in leadership

The company's post-shortage downturn exposed the gap between the CEO's pandemic-era reputation and the market's current expectations

When a company's two largest shareholders are sovereign governments, a CEO succession dispute becomes a diplomatic incident. The board's inability to manage the disagreement deepened the damage.