Intel cuts back spending, workforce as struggling chip maker eyes comeback

Intel Corp. is shedding thousands of workers and cutting expenses as its new CEO works to revive the fortunes of the struggling chipmaker that helped launch Silicon Valley but has fallen behind rivals like Nvidia Corp.

In a memo to employees, CEO Lip-Bu Tan said Intel plans to end the year with 75,000 workers, down 31 per cent from 108,900 employees at the end of last year, through layoffs and attrition. The company previously announced a 15 per cent workforce reduction.

I know the past few months have not been easy. We are making hard but necessary decisions to streamline the organization, drive greater efficiency and increase accountability at every level of the company, Tan wrote.

In addition, Intel will scrap previously planned projects in Germany and Poland and also move assembly and test operations in Costa Rica to larger sites in Vietnam and Malaysia. Costa Rica will remain a home to key engineering teams and corporate functions, Tan said in the memo.

In the US, the company said it will further slow construction of a semiconductor plant in Ohio.

Founded in 1968 at the start of the PC revolution, Intel missed the technological shift to mobile computing triggered by Apple's 2007 release of the iPhone, and it's lagged more nimble chipmakers. Intel's troubles have been magnified since the advent of artificial intelligence a booming field where the chips made by once-smaller rival Nvidia have become tech's hottest commodity.

The Santa Clara, California-based company's market cap was $98.71 billion as of the market close on Thursday, compared with Nvidia's $4.24 trillion.