This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of use.

Intel Skylake

Earlier this month, we covered the relentless shrinking of the PC market and the difference of long-time Intel executives in Intel'due south mobile segments. It at present looks every bit though these troubles are going to spark problems for the company's employees. Intel may be considering significant layoffs that would cutting the company'south headcount past double-digit percentages.

The Oregonian reports that Intel currently employs 107,000 people worldwide. It'due south recently been on a hiring spree in Oregon itself, with nineteen,500 people there total (up 5% from final summertime). Much of that piece of work has been washed on Intel'south leading-edge inquiry firm, Fab D1X, and might non be afflicted by the cuts. Terminal year, Intel trimmed 1100 jobs; but this year's cuts would dwarf that effigy if the rumors are accurate.

"After seeing the upheaval in senior staff, information technology would non surprise me if structural changes are finally itinerant," Jim McGregor, an analyst with Tirias Research, told the Oregonian.

Intel'south problem is easy to diagnose and extremely challenging to fix: The company'southward mobile efforts accept not yielded the kind of fruit that Intel wanted. Contra-revenue shipments boosted the visitor's raw share of the tablet market and gave x86 fries enough of shelf space, just contra-revenue shipments are a short-term measure out meant to build market share at the cost of quarterly or yearly profits. They aren't a long-term solution, and Intel knows it.

Intel-Tablets

Intel hit its tablet shipment goals, but not at the kind of revenue information technology wanted.

The problem here isn't that Intel is in bad shape every bit such — there's no sign that ARM is advancing in disquisitional HPC or data center markets, and the PC market, while continuing to trend down, still generates tens of billions of dollars for Intel every twelvemonth. The trouble for Intel is that for the start time in decades, calculating is advancing under banners other than its own. We've talked earlier about the challenges the visitor faces in reclaiming a tenable position in emerging markets and information technology'due south still unclear how Intel will accept an agile role in these spaces without either overhauling its manufacturing strategies or its product development cycle — and mayhap both.

Intel will announce its Q1 2022 results on Tuesday, and the figures aren't likely to be great. The visitor has made a number of changes to its roster and its focus in recent years, including buying Altera last yr for $16.seven billion. If it plans to announce some focus shifts or new project strategies, nosotros may notice out more near them this calendar week. The company has previously stated that it will focus on three main pillars of growth — data centers, the Internet of Things, and memory technologies like the recently demonstrated Optane (aka 3D XPoint).