At the start of 2012, Virginia Rometty, the current senior vice-president, will take over from IBM's present chief executive Sam Palmisano.
Although he will remain as the firm's chairman, Mr Palmisano will step aside.
Macquarie Securities analyst Brad Zelnick has endorsed the hiring of Ms Rometty, who is also known as Ginni.
"Given Ginni's experience running the largest portion of the business by revenue, she was a logical choice," he said.
Earlier this month, Intel announced a 17 per cent rise in third-quarter profits, revealing that net income for the three months to September was $3.47 billion (£2.2 billion) compared with $2.96 billion in 2010.
Intel explained that demand from China and other developing countries has helped offset slower growth in the firm's mature markets.
"Emerging markets are good, enterprise is strong, the mature market consumer is a little bit weaker," said Stacy Smith, Intel's chief financial officer.
Posted by Simon Jones
