22,000 employees may be leaving the office for the last time this week not because they failed to work, but because Intel wants to ‘reset’ its company completely.
The move is expected to be the largest layoff in Intel’s history, with more than 20% of the workforce being laid off.
But this is not just a cost-cutting measure. This is emergency surgery by new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, who has only been in the CEO chair for two months and has already started to ‘flip the board’.
Intel, once synonymous with “Intel Inside”, is now off the radar of the technology competition, lagging far behind Nvidia, AMD, and TSMC in the world of AI.
Their supposed savior GPU, Falcon Shores, is quietly being shelved for internal testing.
Products are dead, engineering talent is fleeing, and what’s left? Bureaucracy and PowerPoint files.
Last week, Tan moved quickly by selling a 51% stake in the Altera chip unit to Silver Lake for $8.75 billion.
And now, one by one, ‘non-engineering’ departments like HR and marketing are being cut.
Intel is also said to be in secret talks with old foe TSMC to form a joint venture. Once an enemy, now a possible savior.
Tan seems determined to rebuild the company from scratch – an “engineering-first” culture, a flat organization, and a clear mission.
The question is, is this CPR coming at the right time… or is Intel already dead, just not planted?
