Intel Is Laying Off Over 15,000 Employees
August 1st, 2024Update: Intel’s, “Worst Day Ever”
Wrecked.
Via: USA Today:
Intel shares sank nearly 28% on Friday and were set for their worst day ever after the company suspended dividend and slashed workforce to fund a costly turnaround for its chip-making business.
The company was set to lose about $35 billion in market value as its disappointing forecast and planned 15% job cuts raised worries about its ability to catch up with Taiwan’s TSMC and other chipmakers.
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Keep in mind, the events leading up to this are in the past. It’s much worse now.
Intel has recently admitted that two generations of CPUs are prone to a power instability issue that can permanently damage the chips:
Intel has announced that it has found the root cause of the crashing issues plaguing its CPUs. The company will issue a microcode update to address the issues by mid-August, ostensibly ending the long-running saga that began when the first sporadic reports of CPU crashing errors surfaced in December 2022 and grew to a crescendo by the end of 2023. Intel’s response comes after complaints about the issue, which causes PCs to inexplicably crash/BSOD during gaming and other workloads, reached a fever pitch in recent weeks. However, the microcode update will not repair impacted processors.
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The bug causes irreversible degradation of the impacted processors. We’re told that the microcode patch will not repair processors already experiencing crashes, but it is expected to prevent issues on processors that aren’t currently impacted by the issue. For now, it is unclear if CPUs exposed to excessive voltage have suffered from invisible degradation or damage that hasn’t resulted in crashes yet but could lead to errors or crashes in the future.
Intel advises all customers having issues to seek help from its customer support. Because the microcode update will not repair impacted processors, the company will continue to replace them. Intel has pledged to grant RMAs to all impacted customers.
As the PR disaster snowballs: Intel announces two extra years of warranty amid chip crashing and instability issues — longer warranty applies to 13th- and 14th-Gen Core processors:
Intel told us today that it will extend the warranty on its boxed Intel Core 13th- and 14th-Gen processors by two additional years. Intel’s warranty extension comes as a result of the crashing and instability issues that have plagued its 13th- and 14th-Gen chips for months. Those issues impact all 65W and higher models, meaning the crashes have a widespread impact ranging from the flagship models down to even the pedestrian mid-range chips. Intel’s processors typically come with a three-year warranty period, so the extension will bring the warranty for most boxed processors to five years.
Via: The Verge:
Intel’s on a long, long road to recovery, and over 15,000 workers will no longer be coming along for the ride. The chipmaker just announced it’s downsizing its workforce by over 15 percent as part of a new $10 billion cost savings plan for 2025, which will mean a headcount reduction of greater than 15,000 roles, Intel tells The Verge. The company currently employs over 125,000 workers, so layoffs could be as many as 19,000 people.
Intel will reduce its R&D and marketing spend by billions each year through 2026; it will reduce capital expenditures by more than 20 percent this year; it will restructure to “stop non-essential work,” and it’ll review “all active projects and equipment” to make sure it’s not spending too much.
