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Intel

Intel Will Lay Off 15% To 20% of Its Factory Workers, Memo Says 60

Posted by BeauHD from the major-layoffs dept.
Intel will lay off 15% to 20% of its factory workforce starting in July, potentially cutting over 10,000 jobs as part of a broader effort to streamline operations amid declining sales and mounting competitive pressure. "These are difficult actions but essential to meet our affordability challenges and current financial position of the company. It drives pain to every individual," Intel manufacturing Vice President Naga Chandrasekaran wrote to employees Saturday. "Removing organizational complexity and empowering our engineers will enable us to better serve the needs of our customers and strengthen our execution. We are making these decisions based on careful consideration of what's needed to position our business for the future." The company reiterated that "we will treat people with care and respect as we complete this important work." Oregon Live reports: Intel announced the pending layoffs in April and notified factory workers last week that the cuts would begin in July. It hadn't previously said just how deep the layoffs will go. The company had 109,000 employees at the end of 2024, but it's not clear how many of those worked in its factory division -- called Intel Foundry. The Foundry business includes a broad array of jobs, from technicians on the factory floor to specialized researchers who work years in advance to develop future generations of microprocessors.

Intel is planning major cuts in other parts of its business, too, but employees say the company hasn't specified how many jobs it will eliminate in each business unit. Workers say they believe the impacts will vary within departments. Overall, though, the layoffs will surely eliminate several thousand jobs -- and quite possibly more than 10,000.
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Intel Will Lay Off 15% To 20% of Its Factory Workers, Memo Says More

Intel Will Lay Off 15% To 20% of Its Factory Workers, Memo Says

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  • 18a is still probably not attracting enough customers.

  • Something is wrong there (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Monday June 16, 2025 @08:25PM (#65454587)
    Unless they have hit on some major new automation or they are getting a whole shitload of work visas for cheap overseas labor then there's plenty of demand for their products and no reason for them to be laying off workers.

    What this feels like is them trying to bump the stock with layoffs. I don't see how it would last and they would be able to keep up with demand so that it would translate into lost sales. I mean their gpus are flying off the shelves as fast as they can stock them for Christ's sake. And while AMD is eating a bit of their lunch there is still plenty of demand for Intel CPUs.

    This feels like what Walmart did where they fired so many stockers they couldn't keep their shelves stocked and they were losing money because people would show up to buy something and it wouldn't be where they could buy it.

    But I guess it will give them a short-term stock bump. And they can use the short-term cash savings for stock BuyBacks.

    We used to have all sorts of laws that would discourage that sort of thing and our economy was much more stable when we did. The baby boomers grew up in that economy and it's a huge part of why they built as much wealth as they did. That's in all the government programs they benefited from that are gone now.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      What this feels like is them trying to bump the stock with layoffs.

      Exactly right. The funniest part is just how stupid the stock market is. Big layoffs shouldn't make a stock go up. It is not a sign of greater efficiency, it is a sign of incompetent management. Any time a company eliminates thousands of people the CEO should be the first to go, because it means they hired thousands of people they didn't need in order to give the illusion of growth.

      • It's because the expectation is that the money saved from the layoffs will be going into stock BuyBacks.

        So when you see big layoffs you buy the stock and then you know that the company is going to buy it back from you for a profit.

        That's great if you are rich and can weather the recession that's coming. Not so great if you are literally everybody else in the country.

        The real problem here is we have structured every aspect of our economy so that the 1% benefit at our expense. It's a house always w

      • What this feels like is them trying to bump the stock with layoffs.

        Exactly right. The funniest part is just how stupid the stock market is. Big layoffs shouldn't make a stock go up. It is not a sign of greater efficiency, it is a sign of incompetent management. Any time a company eliminates thousands of people the CEO should be the first to go, because it means they hired thousands of people they didn't need in order to give the illusion of growth.

        Or they're firing thousands of people they do need just to make Wall Street start masturbating over their profit potential. Either way, it's a pretty damning look. Were they stupid when hiring? Or are they being stupid now for being extremely short-sighted, based entirely on MBA gospel: firing people = short-term gains.

    • Losing money isn't a reason? They probably can't raise prices without increasing unsold inventory, so cutting production it is.
      • On the GPU side they definitely could. I'm not entirely sure why but they sell their mid-ranged card for $250 letting scalpers buy it up and sell it for $400.

        On the CPU side things are tougher but not that much. There are still data centers ramping up constantly. And yeah a lot of them are deploying AMD but a lot of them ain't.

        They do have a lot of weird odds and end businesses they've bought into over the years but not 20,000 employees worth which last I heard is the target for their layoffs.

        No

        • They don't make their own dGPUs, or at least not the silicon. Not sure who does the board assembly or if they use their own packaging facilities, but odds are good those are farmed out to other parties.

        • I'm not entirely sure why but they sell their mid-ranged card for $250 letting scalpers buy it up and sell it for $400.

          Intel is failing at GPUs [digitaltrends.com] like most of us knew they would. They simply are not competent at... well, frankly anything anymore. Their performance advantage was based on willfully compromising security in ways that they were warned were harmful before they did them, but they deliberately chose to do them anyway; and on superior process technology, and their process technology is no longer superior and hasn't been for a whole bunch of years now; and of course, on anticompetitive actions which have been proven

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by DarkOx ( 621550 )

            Exactly ARC sucks, its really terrible. They are not worth 250 let alone 400. You can get as much performance out of three generations old AMD kit. I know a lot of the tech media and gamers alike really want there to be more than two players, and one clear leader but wishing does not make it so.

            Intel is so far from being competitive the right thing for them to do is abandon the space here.

    • They're losing money and cutting entire product divisions. And their fabs are in trouble.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by aergern ( 127031 )

      Are you kidding? 13th and 14th gen were trash, and AMD has been stomping on Intel for the last 2+ years. You bring ARM into the mix and yes, Intel needs a reboot.

      I remember when folks said you couldn't get fired for buying Big Blue then it was Microsoft and now folks are talking the same thing about Intel when in reality ... if a megacorp gets to full of themselves and their monopoly then usually do take a nose dive after a while.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by TWX ( 665546 )

      What this feels like is them trying to bump the stock with layoffs. I don't see how it would last and they would be able to keep up with demand so that it would translate into lost sales. I mean their gpus are flying off the shelves as fast as they can stock them for Christ's sake. And while AMD is eating a bit of their lunch there is still plenty of demand for Intel CPUs.

      This feels like what Walmart did where they fired so many stockers they couldn't keep their shelves stocked and they were losing money because people would show up to buy something and it wouldn't be where they could buy it.

      But I guess it will give them a short-term stock bump. And they can use the short-term cash savings for stock BuyBacks.

      And what's even more stupid, Intel has enough competition that they might not be able to hire back laid-off workers. TSMC is opening a factory in greater Phoenix, probably in part due to the area's semiconductor manufacturing history and there being an existing pool of trained workers. If the demand for labor outpaces the supply of experienced workers then Intel might find that other companies have snapped up the available workforce and they'll have to spend even more to attract them back.

      In Walmart's cas

      • While I more or less agree with your post, as someone who has spent over 20 years in retail, there are huge differences in peoples' abilities to open boxes and put stuff on the shelf. You say you can get someone up to speed in a few days but that's just showing your ignorance.

        I agree retail is high school drop out work and yet me, someone that's trying to transition out and into IT, can and does run circles around your average retailer. Sure, any idiot COULD do the base part of the job, but your average idi

  • Death by MBA (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Gravis Zero ( 934156 ) on Monday June 16, 2025 @08:30PM (#65454597)

    Honestly, MBAs are great at destroying large companies and if you don't stop it before it starts then you're just doomed. Frankly, I can't think of a company more worthy of this fate than Intel.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Only problem is if Intel flops over, we have TSMC and only TSMC, and one EMP from China will completely destroy all Western chip production, period.

    • But they're great at making suits rich!

    • Re:Death by MBA (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Ogive17 ( 691899 ) on Monday June 16, 2025 @09:46PM (#65454697)
      Here is his education:

      "Chandrasekaran earned a bachelorâ(TM)s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Madras; a masterâ(TM)s degree and a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Oklahoma State University; a masterâ(TM)s degree in information and data science from the University of California, Berkeley; and dual executive MBAs from the University of California, Los Angeles, and the National University of Singapore.

      You may have a point if he was some MBA from Harvard with no other credentials. With his resume, I'd tend to believe he's making a real attempt at reducing the bloat and getting back to core strengths of a once great company.

      Or this hastens the demise of Intel. Death by a thousand cuts or dramatic actions in an attempt to save it.
      • Reinforcing your point, here's his IEEE writeup (ends 2008):

        Research paper credits

        Binary Tree, Distributed Algorithm, Joining Tree, Leaf Node,Subtree, Abrasive Particles, Adaptive Neuro-fuzzy Inference System, Advances In Neural Networks, All-pairs-shortest-path, Angular Velocity, Artificial Neural Network, Automata

        Engineering credits

        Naga Chandrasekaran received the Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, in 2001, under the able tutelage of Prof. Komanduri.,He started his career at Mictron Technology, Inc., as a R&D CMP Development Engineer. From 2001 to 2004, his work spanned a wide range of CMP projects and, in particular, helped improve scratch generation understanding and subsequently reduce STI CMP defects. Over the last six years, he has worked in different process areas including CMP, CVD, diffusion, PVD, and implant and lead several of these teams to assist in R&D of advanced memory devices. Currently, he is working as the Process and Equipment Engineering Manager in IM FLASH Technology, an Intel-Micron joint venture in manufacturing NAND memory devices

      • Intel was profitable last quarter (Score:4, Insightful)

        by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Monday June 16, 2025 @11:07PM (#65454787)
        They don't need to be saved they're doing just fine. Just because a company isn't making all the money in the world right this very second and growing at the exact same rate it did always and forever doesn't mean the company is on the verge of death.

        I know our civilization is structured around endless growth but suggesting that intel, a very profitable company, needs to be saved by cutting 20% of its staff at a time when their products are selling extremely well seems more like a suicide pact than anything else.

        This isn't the 1940s or even the '50s there isn't nearly as much bloat as people like to think there is. MBAs have been optimizing everything for 50 plus years. Even those famous IBM firings back in the day had nothing to do with bloat if you dig into it they were just firing older workers and using bloat as an excuse to do it.

        Come to think of it with how many baby boomers are at or near retirement age and how many older Gen x there are out there I wouldn't be surprised to find Intel is just cleaning house right now. Technically illegal but like I always say it's not a law if it's not enforced.

        • Say what? They got slaughtered last quarter and posted grim guidance for q2. Their YoY gains are pathetic to negative.

          • If you're referring to their Q4 earnings from 2024 that's because that's when they took the charge down for all the firings they are doing and for some depreciation on the previous generation node hardware for your old i7s.

            Basically it's just an accounting trick to avoid paying taxes.

            If you take that away they made a ton of money. In terms of just being a business that sells things and makes money they are doing very well they just aren't doing as well as last quarter so they're taking a buzzsaw to

            • I'm referring to the fact that they've had massive, massive drops in margin. MASSIVE. There's a reason why Lip Bu Tan is firing people and stating publicly that he wants all future Intel products to have a gross margin of at least 50%. Good luck to them, they're gonna need it.

      • Why are you assuming he made the decision? He announced the decision but remember he is Vice President, not President, not COO, and not CEO of Intel.

    • > Frankly, I can't think of a company more worthy of this fate than Intel.

      Uh, Comcast! I hope to see Comcast flail. I stopped being their customer in 2018 and I still despise them!

  • Seems like Intel is the latest company that is being targeted by PE investors

  • You people are the cynical motherfuckers on the planet! I man, god damn! It is doom and gloom here, all fucking day long! Do you people have no joy in your lives at all?!

  • They are, by and large, dead weight, and significantly more expensive than factory workers.
  • your skilled factory workers and researchers, you do it by getting rid of the bureaucrats. Gut HR and marketing, gut the paper pushers, leave the people who actually design and make the products.
  • I see NO need to go back to Intel, ever.
  • Fire the suits that ruined the company. Fire everyone who names their products too. They clearly do not have functional brains.
    This makes zero sense when all their chips have had a shortage on the market and artificially high price since 2021. Yeah, let's get rid of 1000 people that build chips. That'll solve the problem.
  • Shrink your way to growth! It ALWAYS WORKS.

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