Intel Corp. may fire thousands of workers by the end of the month, around the same time the chip manufacturer reports quarterly results amid a tough year for semiconductor makers, according to a report late Tuesday.
Layoffs will be announced “as early as this month,” Bloomberg reported, citing unidentified sources described as having knowledge that the cuts are coming. Intel
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has around 121,100 employees worldwide. While the report did not include geographical specificity concerning the targeted jobs, it said the sales and marketing departments could see up to 20% reductions in staff.
The last time Intel laid off a large number of workers was back in April 2016, when the Santa Clara, Calif.–based chip company announced it was cutting 12,000 jobs, or 11% of its workforce, on the same day it reported quarterly earnings.
Read: Chip stocks could suffer worst year ever as effects of shortage-turned-glut spread
Intel is schedule to report third-quarter earnings on Oct. 27. Analysts expect earnings of 34 cents on sales of $15.43 billion based on Intel’s forecast of about 35 cents a share and $15 billion to $16 billion in sales. In the year-earlier quarter, Intel reported earnings of $1.71 a share on revenue of $19.19 billion.
Ever since Intel Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger took the helm in early 2021, he’s faced an uphill battle to return the company to its former glory as a leading-edge chip manufacturer.
That means building out the company’s manufacturing capacity, which, while a popular idea during a global chip shortage, has faced criticism as the multiyear plan not only weighs heavily on margins and profitability, but comes at a time when PC demand has plummeted.
See: PC market in ‘steepest’ fall since data started being collected in mid-1990s, analysts agree
Also: AMD warning prompts analysts to revisit whether PC chip market has bottomed yet
Last year, Gelsinger defended his capital plan, promising that margins would stay “comfortably above 50%,” a promise that had aged liked milk nine months later when a challenging 2022 wore margins down to about 45% in the second quarter.
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