Intel Begins Massive Layoffs in Foundry, Auto Unit, and Marketing

[AleksandarK]

Intel has kicked off a widespread round of job cuts this week, informing staff members individually about their future with the company. CEO Lip-Bu Tan first advised employees in April to expect significant layoffs, following years of production challenges and declining sales. Although Intel has not provided a total headcount for the reductions, the process will unfold over several weeks, with some workers receiving immediate notice and others awaiting final decisions. Within Intel's manufacturing division, known as Intel Foundry, the company plans to eliminate approximately 15% to 20% of technician, engineer, and researcher positions in its Oregon facilities. At the same time, Intel will close its automotive technology unit, resulting in layoffs for most employees in that business, and outsource marketing activities to Accenture under a new arrangement designed to harness AI for greater efficiency.

Initial layoff notices have gone out in California, and further announcements are expected soon in Arizona and Oregon, Intel's largest US sites. These cuts follow last summer's reduction of 15,000 roles, which left Intel with roughly 109,000 employees worldwide. In 2024, the company reported a $19 billion loss as rivals such as TSMC, AMD, and NVIDIA outpaced Intel with more advanced and cost-effective chips. Plans to expand fab capacity in Ohio, Germany, and Israel have been put on hold due to diminished revenue and shifting market priorities. Intel is counting on its next-generation 18A process node, due for release later this year, to restore its competitive edge. For external customers, the interest is drawn from 18A-P and 14A.



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[Gigaherz]

Will there even be any jobs left by 2030?

 

[BoggledBeagle]

You need to cut off the rotting nad superfluous meat and fat out of the dying giant in an attempt to save it.

Done well the layoffs and restructualisation and optimisations are essential.

You just do not want to do similar stupid things as sack the people from your meteorologic service so that nobody can warn people about the upcoming flood anymore.

 

[usiname]

What a great move, we must to award them with new 8b subside, like we do every quarter

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Will there even be any jobs left by 2030?

if it pleases the shareholders it will be done.

one well the layoffs and restructualisation and optimisations are essential.

Doing so will improve stock prices eventually

 

[Vayra86]

Will there even be any jobs left by 2030?

Intel is secretly making a digital copy of Pat Gelsinger and he will be replacing all engineers and wafers by 2027. They're in the final stages of preproduction, and it'll replace 14A, the new moniker is 1PG.
The marketing can be done by AI agents.
Distribution is outsourced to Amazon.
Intel leadership is only still looking for a way to keep lobbying with just one employee, because none of this is going to turn into profit, obviously.

 

[GeoffreyA]

I feel bad for the people losing their jobs. It takes a toll on one, and it's not easy getting a new job.

 

[dyonoctis]

Intel is secretly making a digital copy of Pat Gelsinger and he will be replacing all engineers and wafers by 2027. They're in the final stages of preproduction, and it'll replace 14A, the new moniker is 1PG.
The marketing can be done by AI agents.
Distribution is outsourced to Amazon.
Intel leadership is only still looking for a way to keep lobbying with just one employee, because none of this is going to turn into profit, obviously.

By the sound of it, they aren't getting rid of minimum wage workers. I bet that many of those +15000 employees had at least six or close to six figures in salary. That's at least a few billion a year. And it doesn't sound like quantity worked that well for them. Other companies are doing more or just as good with less employees.

about 30k employees at Nvidia and AMD vs Intel's 100 000

 

[Vayra86]

I feel bad for the people losing their jobs. It takes a toll on one, and it's not easy getting a new job.

There's an abundance of work though... how is it not easy getting a new job? I'd rather think it was never easier...

 

[GeoffreyA]

There's an abundance of work though... how is it not easy getting a new job? I'd rather think it was never easier...

I don't know about the US, but here in South Africa, we've got rampant unemployment, and it's not easy finding a job, even with university degrees. Doubtless, with the rise of AI, it's going to get harder everywhere for many fields. These days, it may be better to get into a hands-on profession, like construction, roof maintenance, or plumbing.

 

[Daven]

By the sound of it, they aren't getting rid of minimum wage workers. I bet that many of those +15000 employees had at least six or close to six figures in salary. That's at least a few billion a year. And it doesn't sound like quantity worked that well for them. Other companies are doing more or just as good with less employees.

about 30k employees at Nvidia and AMD vs Intel's 100 000

Most of the difference comes from the fabs. AMD and Nvidia don’t have fabs. TSMC has 70,000+ employees. Intel has about half the number of fabs as TSMC. So a good 30,000 to 40,000 Intel job positions are in their fabs.

Owning your own machine shop takes lots of resources and must stay near capacity to make economic sense. My company decided to bring manufacturing in house for some parts years ago. But recent economic events have reduced our sales. The machinists are still being paid the same amount of salary but only making a quarter of the parts.

Edit: I found this article from Intel:

How Many Manufacturing Fabs Does Intel Have?

Learn more about the number and worldwid

www.intel.com

They say HALF of their workforce is in production or production services.

 

[Gigaherz]

I'd rather think it was never easier...

No idea where you live but it has never been more competition on the market. It is almost impossible to get a job where I live. Not even at MC Donalds. Having to wait over a year and do several hundred applications to land one is the standard now. It was never harder.

After 4 years since finishing Uni, 3 out of 30 people in my section are curently employed within the industry they wanted. 10 others work in service/food aka lowest level. The rest is unemployed. Its f-ed up.

 

[Daven]

No idea where you live but it has never been more competition on the market. It is almost impossible to get a job where I live. Not even at MC Donalds. Having to wait over a year and do several hundred applications to land one is the standard now. It was never harder.

After 4 years since finishing Uni, 3 out of 30 people in my section are curently employed within the industry they wanted. 10 others work in service/food aka lowest level. The rest is unemployed. Its f-ed up.

In the US, employment is basically full since the unemployment rate is about 4%. So if new workers enter the market and old workers do not retire at the same rate, then not enough net job positions are available. In addition, the creation of new job positions will be limited by AI and automation which is already happening to the Intel marketing department.

 

[Raiden85]

Intel ultimately did this to themselves. You had a decade of quad cores until AMD gave them a massive kick up the arse to actually innovate, and then you had the really poor quality control on the 13th and 14th gens, which are still ticking time bombs.

And there's Intel’s most annoying issue: changing bloody sockets pretty much every generation for the sake of it. And motherboards aren't cheap these days. If AMD can pull off many generations using the same socket with some pretty large jumps in performance (especially during AM4), then Intel has no excuse not to make a socket that lasts, except for greed.

Those “efficiency" cores are a waste of time; they are just as power-hungry. And now Intel is finally copying AMD again by shoving lots of cache onboard. Intel has become a stagnant company with extremely little innovation in the CPU space at the moment. Such a shame, because this will end up making AMD stagnant.

 

[BoggledBeagle]

Intel ultimately did this to themselves. You had a decade of quad cores until AMD gave them a massive kick up the arse to actually innovate

Can you understand how AMD would have ended up if Intel was agressive while AMD was weak and struggling?!

AMD could hobble along their difficult period just because Intel was not putting too much pressure on them.

 

[Daven]

Intel ultimately did this to themselves. You had a decade of quad cores until AMD gave them a massive kick up the arse to actually innovate, and then you had the really poor quality control on the 13th and 14th gens, which are still ticking time bombs.

And there's Intel’s most annoying issue: changing bloody sockets pretty much every generation for the sake of it. And motherboards aren't cheap these days. If AMD can pull off many generations using the same socket with some pretty large jumps in performance (especially during AM4), then Intel has no excuse not to make a socket that lasts, except for greed.

Those “efficiency" cores are a waste of time; they are just as power-hungry. And now Intel is finally copying AMD again by shoving lots of cache onboard. Intel has become a stagnant company with extremely little innovation in the CPU space at the moment. Such a shame, because this will end up making AMD stagnant.

The worst part of it all that even after all the pronounced changes Intel is still the same as day one except now they don’t have a monopoly.

 

[ThomasK]

What a poor strategy it is to remain competitive, getting rid of engineers, technicians and other talent.

Smells just like good ol' Intel, prioritizing shareholders and itself. Or maybe there will be a turnaround after this, and the new CEO realizes the customer needs to come first. Then eventually we'll get to keep our motherboards for more than 1-2 generations.

 

[BoggledBeagle]

What a poor strategy it is to remain competitive, getting rid of engineers, technicians and other talent.

I do not think Intel is getting rid of highly talented and perspective employees, why would you presume such thing?

 

[Jism]

What a great move, we must to award them with new 8b subside, like we do every quarter

It was amazing to see intel shopping in europe to see which goverment would offer the highest subside.

I mean i get it subside - building a fab aint cheap but at the same time it shows how profit oriented intel really is and not just for people's being offering more jobs at a location.

Intel has missed a few generations, and they are getting pounded. Just the enterprise market alone it's going to look like AMD is taking in 40% of market share very very soon.

Their products are just better, faster and more efficient.

 

[Daven]

I do not think Intel is getting rid of highly talented and perspective employees, why would you presume such thing?

I mean it says as much right in the article:

Within Intel's manufacturing division, known as Intel Foundry, the company plans to eliminate approximately 15% to 20% of technician, engineer, and researcher positions in its Oregon facilities.

I have a hard time thinking that those technicians, engineers and researchers are untalented but maybe that's why Intel sucks right now; because 15 to 20% of their technician, engineer and researcher hires were untalented. But again I doubt it.

 

[Jism]

Replaced by AI.

 

[A&P211]

Will there even be any jobs left by 2030?

I've heard the military will need people to fight some robots that I've heard about.

You need to cut off the rotting nad superfluous meat and fat out of the dying giant in an attempt to save it.

Done well the layoffs and restructualisation and optimisations are essential.

You just do not want to do similar stupid things as sack the people from your meteorologic service so that nobody can warn people about the upcoming flood anymore.

I've heard in a book, that some "ark" can save lots of people.

Intel is secretly making a digital copy of Pat Gelsinger and he will be replacing all engineers and wafers by 2027. They're in the final stages of preproduction, and it'll replace 14A, the new moniker is 1PG.
The marketing can be done by AI agents.
Distribution is outsourced to Amazon.
Intel leadership is only still looking for a way to keep lobbying with just one employee, because none of this is going to turn into profit, obviously.

Your comment is rated "PG-13".

 

[Erratic4^2]

There's an abundance of work though... how is it not easy getting a new job? I'd rather think it was never easier...

How long has it been since you were in the market? Look at the number of people laid off by tech companies in the last few years, they all need new jobs. Combine this with outsourcing low level work to other countries and increasing use of automation targeted at the entry level work, getting a job in the entry to mid level range is very difficult. Only if you have 7ish plus years of experience can you get a job easily.

 

[Tek-Check]

Even after this wave of job cuts, Intel will still have a HUGE over-employment, as shown by Dr Ian Cutress.
I am afraid that further waves of job cuts will arrive soon. It's unsustainable to have so many workers for their current situation in the market.
At least another 20,000 or so jobs will be lost in the foreseeable.

 

[Daven]

Even after this wave of job cuts, Intel will still have a HUGE over-employment, as shown by Dr Ian Cutress.
I am afraid that further waves of job cuts will arrive soon. It's unsustainable to have so many workers for their current situation in the market.
At least another 20,000 or so jobs will be lost in the foreseeable.

The sad part is that Intel would seem to need as many jobs as TSMC and AMD combined to be both a fab-for-hire and chip design powerhouse. But their current revenue could not sustain a combined 130K positions (AMD+TSMC). This is why their current business plan will not work. What is to become of Intel if they can't execute on the plan that's been in the works for the better part of a decade now.