Tech company Intel slashes thousands of jobs
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A faltering American tech icon is set to lay off as much as a fifth of its workers next month. Intel — once the dominant chipmaker which powered most PCs — sent an email to employees on Saturday, warning that job cuts are coming to its factories. 'These are difficult actions but essential to meet our affordability challenges and current financial position of the company,' Naga Chandrasekaran, the tech giant's vice president of manufacturing, said in the memo seen by Oregon Live.
Chandrasekaran said the company is aiming to slash 15 to 20 percent of its factory workforce in July, a move that could push thousands of Americans into job searches. With Intel employing 109,000 globally, that would mean 16,350 to 21,800 layoffs. It is not clear how many work in US-based factories, and how many American jobs will go.
Recently, Intel reported employing more than 20,000 staffers at its plant in Hillsboro, Oregon. The news comes a day after Microsoft said it was cutting thousands of jobs , and two days after Amazon's CEO also announced brutal workforce cuts . Both linked the cuts to AI. This marks the second round of layoffs for the legendary tech company in a year. Last December, Intel slashed 15 percent of its workforce after its stock price dropped by more than 60 percent.
The two sets of layoffs are a response to rising pressure from upstart competitors, compounding financial losses, and a declining stock price. For years, Intel had been a dominant force in tech, manufacturing components for computers such as chips and microprocessors. But in recent years, its competitors have made major technological strides. Chipmakers AMD, IBM, TSMC, and NVIDIA have surged past Intel by investing heavily in processors built for artificial intelligence.
AI chip deployment has been a weak spot for Intel. Investors have punished the company for its apparent flat-footedness. Intel traded above $68 a share in 2021, but it's currently trading just north of $21. The company reported an $821 million loss in the first quarter of this year.
It is also receiving billions of dollars in federal support through the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, which aims to bring militarily critical tech manufacturing back to the US. The company is awaiting the arrival of $6.9 billion in federal grants to support factory builds and growth in Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico, and Ohio. Intel has delayed construction of its Ohio factory until 2030.
Jobs jettisoned
Some of America's biggest companies have announced sweeping job cuts this year. In May, Walmart — America's largest employer — announced it was cutting 1,500 jobs from its tech operations and e-commerce teams. Procter & Gamble, the owner of Tide detergent and Gillette shaving products, is also undergoing significant cuts.
The company said it would eliminate 7,000 positions . Job losses have been even more pronounced in the tech sector, as firms increasingly replace human employees with hyper-intelligent machines. The AI-driven job bloodbath marks a major shift for American workers. For years, mass layoffs were concentrated in US manufacturing plants. Now, they're impacting college-educated, high-to-middle-class earners.
Microsoft — one of the leading firms investing in AI — is expected to lay off thousands of employees next month as it shifts resources toward deeper investments. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently said the quiet part out loud : the technology will uproot thousands of Americans from their jobs. 'As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done,' he wrote to his employees in a memo.
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