Intel to Trim Workforce to 75,000 “Core Employees”

Whoa, okay, so Intel’s been having a bit of a rough ride lately. I guess it’s not a shocker if you’ve been watching them closely. They’re doing the downsizing thing again—which kinda sounds like the plot of a bad movie, right? Anyway, just last month they were all like, “Hey, let’s cut some jobs,” and boom, thousands of people in the US are facing layoffs. Yikes.

Today though, post their Q2 earnings reveal, they’re saying, “Hey, let’s trim down to 75,000 employees.” The Verge did their math magic and figured about 24,000 folks might be out of a job. That’s like… a lot. Imagine filling a whole stadium, and then some.

Now, the whole “Let’s build huge facilities in Germany and Poland” thing? Yeah, that might not be happening anymore. And who wouldn’t want a job there? Anyway, they’re reconsidering those plans, which—no surprise—means fewer job opportunities in those places.

They’re also shaking things up in Costa Rica, moving some stuff to Vietnam. Not a total shutdown, thank goodness, but some folks are gonna be affected, for sure. Then Ohio’s construction plans? Slowed down. Intel’s CFO, David Zinsner, mentioned they want to align this stuff with the market demand or something.

Oh, the money talk—how could I forget? They’re hoping to save a good $17 billion over the next year. But still, looks like they might continue bleeding cash this quarter. Not ideal, but I’ll leave the financial overthinking to the experts.

And future layoffs? Intel’s being all mysterious about when that’ll happen next. Because that’s fun, right? Keeping everyone on their toes.

Moving on—where’s Intel standing these days? I’ve been catching snippets here and there. They used to be king of the hill from the ’80s till the early 2000s. But hey, guess what? They missed the memo on mobile processors. Oops. Meanwhile, Apple, AMD, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, those guys were doing their thing.

Fast forward, and loads of money’s been lost. Like, $7 billion in 2023 alone—oof. The writing’s been on the wall for a bit. Mobile and AI chips are all the rage, but Intel’s been playing catch-up.

Remember those Intel Core Ultra Series 1 AI chips in 2024? Yeah, not exactly the cream of the crop. Tried to speed up the Series 2 after that flop. Fun times.

Oh, get this—a drama involving former CEO Pat Gelsinger. He apparently rubbed TSMC the wrong way with some comment about Taiwan. TSMC was like, “Hey, not cool,” and ended a major deal with Intel. Imagine losing a sweet 40% discount. Talk about shooting oneself in the foot.

And you know what I’ve noticed? More and more folks are jumping ship to AMD chips over Intel. It’s like seeing an unexpected plot twist no one saw coming.

So, what’s next for Intel? They’re banking on their Panther Lake and Nova Lake chips to turn things around. I mean, it’s their best shot right now.

Fingers crossed for Intel—they need all the luck they can get.