Man, the past few years have been wild for Intel. If you’ve been paying attention, you know they’ve been cutting jobs left and right. Just last month, boom—thousands of U.S. employees got hit with layoffs because they’re diving into AI stuff. Seriously, layoffs everywhere.
Now, they’ve just shared their Q2 earnings, and guess what? They’re trimming the workforce down to 75,000. That’s like, 24,000 people suddenly out of work. I can’t even wrap my head around these numbers.
And those plans for big factories in Germany and Poland? Gone. Poof. Just think of the thousands of jobs that vanished into thin air. It’s like they were never really there. I mean, they were supposed to make these gigantic facilities—jobs galore, right? But nope, that plan’s off the table.
And Costa Rica? Yeah, some of the work is moving over to Vietnam. Fewer jobs there now. Intel’s keeping some folks, but it’s definitely not business as usual.
Also, the Ohio construction plans? Slowing down big time. Their CFO, Zinsner, mentioned they’re aligning spending with what the market actually needs. Which, I guess, makes sense—but it’s rough.
They’re hoping to save $17 billion. But oh, boy, they’re still bleeding cash this quarter. No one really knows when the ax will swing again with more layoffs. Feels like a ticking time bomb for the employees.
I was reading about what’s been happening, and let’s be real, Intel used to be the top dog in PC chips from the ’80s onwards. But somewhere along the way, they got too comfy. Ignored mobile and AI tech while others like Apple and NVIDIA raced ahead.
The losses? Massive: $7 billion in 2023 on top of the $5.2 billion from 2022. Talk about a nightmare, right?
Mobile chips and AI processors are everything now, and Intel’s still playing catch-up. Their AI processors from 2024, those Core Ultra Series 1 chips, totally flopped. So they hustled out the Series 2.
To top it off, their old CEO, Gelsinger, kind of messed things up with TSMC by basically saying Taiwan’s not the best place to have all their eggs in one basket. TSMC didn’t like that, and wham! A deal got axed. Suddenly Intel lost a sweet 40% discount on manufacturing costs. Ouch.
Oh, and side note—I’ve been spotting more PCs with AMD chips instead of Intel. That’s new, right?
So, what’s next? They’re banking on new chips, like those Panther Lake ones, to save the day. But will it be enough? Who knows. With Intel, expect anything.
