Intel Will Shed 24,000 Employees This Year, Retreat In Germany, Poland, Costa Rica, and Ohio

Intel announced it will cut approximately 24,000 jobs in 2025 and cancel or scale back projects in Germany, Poland, Costa Rica, and Ohio as part of CEO Lip-Bu Tan's sweeping restructuring efforts. By the end of the year, the struggling chipmaker plans to have 'just around 75,000 'core employees' in total,' according to The Verge. 'It's not clear if the layoffs will slow now that we're over halfway through the year, but Intel states today that it has already 'completed the majority of the planned headcount actions it announced last quarter to reduce its core workforce by approximately 15 percent.'' From the report: Intel employed 109,800 people at the end of 2024, of which 99,500 were 'core employees,' so the company is pushing out around 24,000 people this year -- shrinking Intel by roughly one-quarter. (It has also divested other businesses, shrinking the larger organization as well.) Today, on the company's earnings call, Intel's says that Intel had overinvested in new factories before it had secured enough demand, that its factories had become 'needlessly fragmented,' and that it needs to grow its capacity 'in lock step' with achieving actual milestones. 'I do not subscribe to the belief that if you build it, they will come. Under my leadership, we will build what customers need when they need it, and earn their trust,' says Tan.

Now, in Germany and Poland, where Intel was planning to spend tens of billions of dollars respectively on 'mega-fabs' that would employ 3,000 workers, and on an assembly and test facility that would employ 2,000 workers, the company will 'no longer move forward with planned projects' and is apparently axing them entirely. Intel has had a presence in Poland since 1993, however, and the company did not say its R&D facilities there are closing. (Intel had previously pressed pause on the new Germany and Poland projects 'by approximately two years' back in 2024.)

In Costa Rica, where Intel employs over 3,400 people, the company will 'consolidate its assembly and test operations in Costa Rica into its larger sites in Vietnam.' Metzger tells The Verge that over 2,000 Costa Rica employees should remain to work in engineering and corporate, though. The company is also cutting back in Ohio: 'Intel will further slow the pace of construction in Ohio to ensure spending is aligned with market demand.' Intel CFO David Zinsner says Intel will continue to make investments there, though, and construction will continue.

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