Intel announces plans to axe 24,000 jobs and shelve significant factory expansion projects as part of a broader restructuring initiative.
Tech Giant Intel Announces Mass Layoffs and Restructuring
In a move to adapt to the rapidly changing tech landscape, Intel has announced a significant restructuring plan that aims to save approximately $17 billion by 2025. As part of this plan, the company's workforce is set to reduce from around 99,500 to about 75,000 by the end of 2025.
The restructuring is driven by a combination of shifts in technology focus, cost-cutting measures, and organizational streamlining. Intel is heavily investing in artificial intelligence, cloud infrastructure, and automation technologies, and is reducing roles that are being automated or that do not align with its future AI-centric strategies.
The economic pressures of rising interest rates, inflation, and slower economic growth have also forced companies to tighten budgets, with layoffs helping reduce immediate operating costs. Intel, like many other tech giants, is merging departments, outsourcing some functions, and removing duplicated roles across offices globally to improve efficiency.
The company is also retrenching from non-core businesses such as automotive chips and its RealSense division, and has canceled major planned expansions in Germany and Poland. Over 2,000 Costa Rica employees are expected to shift into engineering and corporate roles.
Intel is consolidating assembly and testing operations from Costa Rica into larger sites in Vietnam and Malaysia. The company's CEO, Tan, states that every investment must make economic sense and aims to build what customers need.
In Q2 of 2025, Intel posted approximately USD 1.9 billion in restructuring costs, and its net loss was USD 2.9 billion on revenue of USD 12.9 billion. The company's share price in Frankfurt trading slipped by 5-6 percent after forecasting steeper losses in Q3.
The restructuring aims at greater efficiency and renewed competitiveness amid pressure from rivals such as Nvidia, AMD, and TSMC. Intel is shifting its focus to artificial intelligence (AI), aiming to earn customer trust through consistent execution in its restructuring plan.
Notably, Intel joins other tech giants like Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, and Google in conducting mass layoffs. Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivasan and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have warned of possible job cut effects due to the increase in adoption of AI in the industry. Intel has reduced management layers by about 50% as part of its restructuring, and plans to eliminate approximately 24,000 jobs by the end of 2025.
[1] Microsoft invests $80 billion in AI infrastructure [2] Microsoft's AI now writes 20-30% of its code [4] Microsoft's AI-driven workforce reduction [5] Historic high levels of job cuts in 2025
[1] In response to the rapid advancements in technology, Microsoft announced an investment of $80 billion towards its AI infrastructure.[2] The growing integration of AI in Microsoft's operations has led to approximately 20-30% of its coding being automated.[4] As part of its efforts to remain competitive in the tech industry,Microsoft is anticipated to undergo an AI-driven workforce reduction.[5] The year 2025 witnessed historic high levels of job cuts, with tech giants like Intel and others implementing restructuring plans to adapt to the rapidly changing tech landscape.
