Intel is reportedly preparing to announce plans this week to reduce its workforce by more than 20%, according to a Bloomberg News report citing a person familiar with the matter. This significant staff reduction aims to eliminate bureaucracy and help rebuild an engineering-focused culture at the struggling chipmaker.
The impending cuts follow last year’s efforts to eliminate approximately 15,000 positions announced in August. Intel’s global workforce had already decreased to 108,900 employees by the end of 2024, down from 124,800 the previous year.
In Ireland, Intel employs 4,900 people at its chip manufacturing plant in Leixlip, Co Kildare. It remains unclear whether these Irish operations will be affected by the planned workforce reduction. The Leixlip site is currently home to a new chipmaking facility, Fab 34, which represents an investment of at least $20 billion (€17.57 billion). Construction work on this facility is largely complete, with high-volume manufacturing of Intel Core Ultra processors on Intel 4 technology having begun there in September 2023.
The chipmaker is scheduled to release its first-quarter financial results tomorrow, which may provide more details about the restructuring plans.
Intel recently appointed tech industry veteran Lip-Bu Tan as its new chief executive. In his communications with Intel staff, Tan acknowledged that overcoming the company’s challenges “won’t be easy.”
Once a dominant force in Silicon Valley, Intel has seen its market position eroded by Asian competitors TSMC and Samsung, which now lead the made-to-order semiconductor business. The company was also caught off guard by Nvidia’s emergence as the preeminent provider of AI chips, a sector experiencing massive growth while Intel’s traditional computing processors face declining demand in comparison to AI-focused hardware.