Planned layoffs at Intel will extend into the company’s software group and other business units, according to sources inside the company, likely numbering at least several hundred and adding significantly to earlier reports on the pending cuts.
The cutbacks figure to be Intel’s biggest job reductions since 2016, when the company eliminated 15,000 jobs through layoffs, buyouts and early retirements. The cuts now pending won’t be nearly that large, according to sources inside the company who asked not to be named talking about their employer.
Still, those sources say the total layoffs will be well into the hundreds and impact the chipmaker’s Oregon sites and its other locations around the world.
Intel declined comment. The company reports quarterly financial results Thursday and sources expect layoff notifications to begin sometime after that, likely accompanied by a public acknowledgement of job cuts.
The Oregonian/OregonLive and tech news sites reported on pending layoffs last week in Intel’s data center group.
Sources in other Intel businesses say the company also plans broader cuts, and they say software in particular faces a significant reduction. The industry news site SemiAccurate reported Monday that its sources expect cuts across Intel business groups.
Intel’s last major layoff triggered enormous cultural strain within the company as employees watched 15,000 of their colleagues walk out the door. Former CEO Brian Krzanich, who presided over the cuts, later admitted to workers that the company mishandled the layoffs and acknowledged the cuts were too “harsh and quick.”
An investigation by The Oregonian/OregonLive found layoffs in 2015 and 2016 fell heavily on the company’s oldest workers. Federal labor watchdogs are in their fifth year investigating age discrimination allegations against the company in connection with those cuts.
Sources inside the company describe this year’s pending cuts as an incremental adjustment and say Intel is anxious to not repeat the traumatic experience of its 2016 cuts.
Though based in Silicon Valley, Intel’s largest sites are in Washington County. The chipmaker is Oregon’s largest corporate employer, with 20,000 workers, and expects to add 1,750 jobs in Hillsboro when it completes a multibillion-dollar factory expansion now underway.
Intel’s business appears broadly healthy but the company appears to be repositioning itself, emphasizing new data center technologies and adding capabilities to its top-end computers.
One group likely to see significant reductions is Intel’s software group, which has a substantial presence in Oregon.
Sources point to this month’s retirement of Intel Vice President, Imad Sousou, an Oregon executive who oversaw the company’s open source technology, as indicative of the changes under way as Intel shifts resources from its software group toward new hardware technologies.
After a series of setbacks in its manufacturing group, Intel has begun shipping its latest generation of 10-nanometer microprocessors and the company has invested heavily in new technologies in hopes of extending its dominance of the lucrative data center market.
In November Intel reaffirmed financial guidance forecasting sales growth of nearly 3% in the fourth quarter. Its shares were up 2.7% Tuesday morning at $61.23, near the stock’s highest point since the dot-com era.
-- Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com | twitter: @rogoway | 503-294-7699
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