Fresh reports of Intel layoffs are making rounds as the company lost a major chunk of its chipmaking business in the last 3 years alone. It is expected to make the announcement during the company’s earnings call on October 27. The job cuts are expected to be companywide, especially across the sales and marketing departments.
Intel has recently lost several opportunities to gain some ground as the titan chip maker that it once used to be. The Intel Arc GPU lineup was one such opportunity, but the company’s delay put its GPUs in a direct comparison with NVidia’s 40 series GPUs. The company first started losing ground when AMD caught up to Intel chips in the gaming market.
Right after that, Apple silicon hit the market, and Intel lost another one of its major clients. Even Microsoft, which still partners with Intel, has fitted its latest flagship Surface 9 Pro with a Qualcomm-backed processor. All of this, combined with the recent silicon shortage, is why Intel may be planning a massive layoff.
Intel to target data centers market
Intel recently lost a significant chunk of the PC market. So the company is now targeting the data center market. Just yesterday, Intel signed an MoU VVDN to manufacture data center and IoT products in India. The company expects a demand surge in these verticals. Bloomberg also reports that the layoffs will hit the sales and marketing department, which can be attributed to the recent dip in revenue.
Analysts predict a 15% drop in Intel’s revenue in the coming quarter. It means Intel’s sales will be $11 billion lower than the predicted numbers in July 2022. It means falling revenue for the company, which could translate into job losses for its Intel employees. The last big Intel layoff was back in 2016, when the company fired 12,000 employees, cutting down 11% of its total workforce.
Other than the layoffs, Intel also plans to cut down on its core expenses. Reports say that the company may cut down dividends and sell shares of Mobileye, Intel’s autonomous driving system. The silicon market has become incredibly competitive in the past 5 years. Apple’s silicon, Qualcomm’s laptop chips, and even Google’s and Samsung’s efforts are leaving Intel behind.
The only hope for the company’s processor business is to make giant strides and surpass the competition while keeping competitive prices. However, the data center market is ripe, and Intel seems to be getting the hang of it for now.
