logo
Intel quietly quadruples number of layoffs

Intel quietly quadruples number of layoffs

Daily Mail​a day ago
A once-dominant tech company is undergoing another mass layoff. Intel is cutting thousands of jobs as it faces mounting pressure from tech competitors in artificial intelligence. The chipmaking giant — which makes processors that power millions of Dell, HP, and Lenovo computers — filed paperwork on July 10 indicating it would lay off nearly 2,400 employees in Oregon.
That's a major escalation from just three days earlier, when the company filed WARN paperwork that said only 529 employees were losing their jobs. The Oregon layoffs are likely part of a broader belt-tightening at the tech giant. In mid-June, the company said it was hoping to slash about 15 to 20 percent of its workforce.
With Intel employing 109,000 globally, that would mean 16,350 to 21,800 staffers would lose their job. Recently, Intel reported employing more than 20,000 workers at its plant in Hillsboro, Oregon. 'We are taking steps to become a leaner, faster and more efficient company,' the company told DailyMail.com.
'Removing organizational complexity and empowering our engineers will enable us to better serve the needs of our customers and strengthen our execution.' Intel declined to comment on which positions are most affected in the latest round of layoffs, but said the cuts were communicated with the utmost 'care and respect' for employees.
This marks the second major round of job cuts at Intel in the past two years. In December, the company ousted its CEO while nixing 15 percent of its workforce in 2024. The job cuts are coming on the back of a turbulent period for the Silicon Valley stalwart. Intel has faced mounting competition from faster-moving rivals and criticism for falling behind in the AI race.
Chipmakers like AMD, IBM, TSMC, and especially NVIDIA have surged ahead by investing aggressively in processors built specifically for artificial intelligence workloads. NVIDIA — whose chips now power nearly 80 percent of AI platforms — recently became the first company to ever reach a valuation over $4 trillion.
Meanwhile, Intel's stock has slumped in the past year. Shares have fallen more than 32 percent, though the company has rebounded somewhat in 2025, with stock prices climbing 15 percent since January. Part of the resurgence comes from positive relationships with Washington.
Intel is receiving billions in federal support through the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, which aims to restore domestic manufacturing of strategically critical technologies. The company is awaiting $6.9 billion in government grants to support factory builds and expansion in Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico, and Ohio.
Intel has delayed construction of its Ohio factory until 2030. Still, the company's balance sheets are deep in the red. In the first quarter of 2025, Intel posted an $821 million loss. Its next earnings report is expected next week. Intel is joined by a list of tech and manufacturing giants that are slimming down their workforces because of AI.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Budget airline shuts down operations across West Coast
Budget airline shuts down operations across West Coast

Daily Mail​

time24 minutes ago

  • Daily Mail​

Budget airline shuts down operations across West Coast

Californians will soon have one less flight option. Avelo Airlines, the Texas-based budget carrier known for its sub-$30 fares and West Coast roots, is pulling out of California. Its decision comes amid mounting backlash over its cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security and increasing business pressure in the region. The company announced Monday that it will shutter its base at Hollywood Burbank Airport and shift focus to its 38 other destinations, largely concentrated on the East Coast. 'We are in the planning phases of relocating the three planes to the East Coast, so [these are] only positive outcomes for our East Coast airports,' Avelo added. Before the decision, Avelo flew into 10 cities on the West Coast. Budget fliers could connect to destinations spanning the region — including Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Portland, and Kalispell, Montana. Those services will end by December 2, 2025. It's a major retreat from the first airport the company ever served. Avelo's inaugural flight departed Burbank and flew to Northern California in 2021. 'This was not an easy decision,' the company's top boss, Andrew Levy, said in a statement. 'Our company's deepest operational roots are in BUR, having launched our first flight there over four years ago during the Covid pandemic. ' But the company said those roots weren't deep enough to weather the region's competitive pressures. The spokesperson said executives made an 'investment of significant time, resources, and efforts' to make the West Coast routes work, but the venture did not produce 'the results necessary to continue our presence there.' Avelo plans to redeploy its California aircraft to the East Coast, where it sees 'more efficient longer-term growth prospects,' Levy said. The decision to shutter California operations also comes as the company faces mounting criticism. Avelo is under fire from activists and consumers calling for a boycott over its cooperation with the Trump administration on deportation flights. The airliner signed a contract with the US Department of Homeland Security in April to transport migrants to detention centers inside and outside the US. It maintains that protests had no influence on the decision to leave California. 'Protests nor our contract with DHS had any effect on our decision and have not impacted our business,' a spokesperson for the company told Opposition has cropped up across the country — from outside Burbank Airport to the company's hub in New Haven, Connecticut — with demonstrators urging Avelo to end its partnership with DHS. Nancy Klein, a California-native, told Reuters she had organized seven protests against the company. She believes the company's decision to end their service at the airport is partially due their calls to boycott the airline. 'This change in Avelo's business operations is some evidence that being on the right side of history, while being principled and persistent, can make a difference,' she said in a statement. Klein said she is planning the next protest against the carrier at Burbank Airport on July 27.

Trump unveils $70bn AI and energy plan at summit with oil and tech bigwigs
Trump unveils $70bn AI and energy plan at summit with oil and tech bigwigs

The Guardian

time29 minutes ago

  • The Guardian

Trump unveils $70bn AI and energy plan at summit with oil and tech bigwigs

Donald Trump joined big oil and technology bosses on Tuesday at a major artificial intelligence and energy summit in Pittsburgh, outraging environmentalists and community organizations. The event came weeks after the passage of a mega-bill that experts say could stymy AI growth with its attacks on renewable energy. 'We're here today because we believe that America's destiny is to dominate every industry and be the first in every technology, and that includes being the world's number one superpower in artificial intelligence,' said Trump. The inaugural Pennsylvania energy and innovation summit, held at Carnegie Mellon University, is an attempt to position the state as an AI leader, showcasing the technological innovation being developed in the city and the widespread availability of fossil fuel reserves to power them. At the gathering, Trump announced $70bn in AI and energy investments for the state, Axios first reported, in a move the event's host, the Republican Pennsylvania senator, Dave McCormick, says will be a boon to local economies. It was evidence that Trump is making good on his promise to serve the people 'of Pittsburgh, not Paris' as he planned withdrawal from the UN Paris climate accord, McCormick said. At the summit, 20 leading technology and energy companies also announced more than $92bn of investments for AI development in Pennsylvania. 'Today's commitments are ensuring that the future is going to be designed, built and made right here in Pennsylvania and right here in Pittsburgh, I have to say right here in the United States of America,' said Trump. The new AI 'won't be powered by wind, because it doesn't work', Trump went on to say. 'I hate to say, it just doesn't work. It's rather intermittent,' he said. 'You don't want, it causes a lot of problems.' (Though wind is indeed intermittent, it can be more reliable than gas. Wind provided over 10% of US electricity in 2023 – a share experts say must increase to achieve climate goals.) Activists say the new investments, which will boost planet-heating energy production, will have disastrous consequences for the climate and for nearby communities. 'Pennsylvanians are paying the price for decisions made behind closed doors: higher utility bills, contaminated water, poor air quality, and worsening health,' said Hilary Flint, Pennsylvania field organizing manager at the non-profit Center for Oil and Gas Organizing. Flint signed a Tuesday letter to Pennsylvania's governor, Josh Shapiro, opposing his plans to work with Trump to expand AI, along with dozens of organizations and individuals. The event also came less than two weeks after Republicans on Capitol Hill passed a Trump-backed budget bill which could dramatically increase the spending and effort needed to power AI data centers, thanks to its rollback of green energy tax credits. Renewable energy is almost always cheaper to build and easier to bring online than fossil fuels. Many tech executives invited to the event have said the availability of wind and solar are essential to the success of AI. Microsoft's Satya Nadella said last May that powering data centers with renewable energy would 'drive down the cost of AI', while the OpenAI head, Sam Altman, said months earlier that 'there's no way' to grow his industry without a 'breakthrough' in affordable clean energy technology. Tech giants Google and its parent company Alphabet, as well as Meta have also both invested in wind and solar to power data centers. But the oil industry, whose top brass are also at the Pittsburgh summit, lobbied in favor of the mega-bill's green energy incentive rollbacks. 'It includes almost all of our priorities,' Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute, the fossil fuel industry's largest lobbying group, told CNBC about the legislation. Sommers is on the guest list for the event. The gathering, to which no public interest consumer or environmental groups were invited, severely downplayed the climate and health consequences of this technological expansion fueled by oil and gas. Data centers used for AI are highly resource intensive, sometimes consuming as much power as entire cities. By the end of the decade, data processing, mainly for AI, is expected to consume more electricity in the US alone than manufacturing steel, cement, chemicals and all other energy-intensive goods combined, according to the International Energy Agency. 'Political leaders should be investing their time meeting with frontline communities, environmental scientists and renewable energy leaders and using their political muscle to create a just transition to renewable energy – not attending summits that double down on old, dirty energy,' said Jess Conard, Appalachia director at the environmental group Beyond Plastics, who lives in the nearby town of East Palestine, Ohio. 'Fossil fuels aren't progress, no matter how you try to rebrand them.' Critics have also raised concerns about security and privacy in the wake of AI's growth. The New York Times and other plaintiffs, including the prominent authors Ta-Nehisi Coates, Michael Chabon and Junot Díaz and the comedian Sarah Silverman, are suing OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement; OpenAI has also received scrutiny for reported labor misconduct. Both OpenAI and Microsoft have defended their positions around copyright infringement allegations. 'Trump's radical AI plan is yet another example of the president siding with powerful corporations ahead of the American people,' said Tyson Slocum, director of the energy program at the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.

Asia shares struggle, dollar soars on lowered Fed rate cut bets
Asia shares struggle, dollar soars on lowered Fed rate cut bets

Reuters

time33 minutes ago

  • Reuters

Asia shares struggle, dollar soars on lowered Fed rate cut bets

TOKYO, July 16 (Reuters) - Asian stock markets were under pressure on Wednesday while the dollar climbed to its firmest against the yen since early April, after U.S. inflation suggested tariffs are pushing prices up, dampening expectations for Federal Reserve policy easing. U.S. Treasury yields ticked to the highest in more than a month, lifting the dollar against the yen in particular. However, tech shares remained resilient following a 4% rally in artificial-intelligence darling Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab overnight. Brent crude continued to hover around $69 per barrel. Data on Tuesday showed U.S. consumer prices rose 0.3% in June, in line with forecasts, but the largest gain since January. Economists attributed the rise in prices across goods such as coffee and home furnishings to the Trump administration's escalating import tariffs. The Fed has been keeping interest rates steady as it has waited for indications of the inflationary impact from tariffs, which Chair Jerome Powell had said he expected in the summer. "We know the revealed preference of Fed Chair Powell, along with a few of his colleagues, is to wait for these tariff impacts to come through, and those in that camp are seeing that view bolstered by this data," Taylor Nugent, senior economist at National Australia Bank, said in a podcast. As a result, markets saw "a fairly significant trimming of Fed expectations" for rate cuts, Nugent said. Traders currently price in 43 basis points of rate reductions for the rest of this year, with 56.5% odds of a quarter-point cut in September. Investors will now carefully monitor producer price data due later on Wednesday, looking for signs of whether inflationary pressures are also building on the factory floor. Australia's equity benchmark (.AXJO), opens new tab South Korea's KOSPI (.KS11), opens new tab each lost around 0.6% as of 0127 GMT. Mainland Chinese blue chips (.CSI300), opens new tab slipped 0.1%. Japan's tech- and exporter-heavy Nikkei (.N225), opens new tab was flat after alternating between small gains and losses, supported by both Nvidia's fortunes and the weak yen. Taiwan's benchmark (.TWII), opens new tab added 0.5% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng (.HSI), opens new tab jumped 0.8%, adding to Tuesday's 1.6% tech-driven rally. U.S. S&P 500 futures eased 0.2%, after a 0.4% decline for the cash index (.SPX), opens new tab overnight. Beyond the Fed and U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs, the earnings season is another focal point for investors. Results from JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N), opens new tab and Citigroup (C.N), opens new tab beat expectations, but were met with a mixed market response. Wells Fargo (WFC.N), opens new tab cut its 2025 net interest income guidance even as it beat second-quarter profit expectations. Bank earnings due on Wednesday include Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America. U.S. 10-year Treasury yields rose as high as 4.495% on Wednesday, the highest since June 11. The dollar stuck close to a multi-week high against major peers. The dollar index was little changed at 98.545 after rising as high as 98.699 on Tuesday for the first time since June 23. The U.S. currency was steady at 148.785 yen , and earlier rose to 149.04 for the first time since April 3, in the aftermath of Trump's "Liberation Day" tariff announcement. The euro edged up 0.1% to $1.1612, trying to pull away from Tuesday's three-week low of $1.1593. Cryptocurrency bitcoin added about 1% to $117,696, as it stabilised following its 6% pullback earlier this week from Monday's all-time high at $123,153.22. Gold added 0.3% to around $3,332. Brent crude futures fell 5 cents to $69.16 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures declined 9 cents to $66.89 a barrel. Both contracts settled more than $1 lower in the previous session.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store