Intel was set to end the year with a workforce that would be over a fifth smaller than last year, it said on Thursday, as new CEO Tan Lip-bu presented a blueprint for a more cost-disciplined, streamlined chipmaker that would issue “no more blank checks”.
The job cuts – a majority of which have been completed already – are part of an effort by Tan since he took the helm in March to turn around the storied US chipmaker. Intel has divested businesses, laid off employees and redirected resources.
The company has underperformed because of years of management blunders.
Intel has virtually no foothold in the booming artificial intelligence chip industry that is dominated by Nvidia, and its long-time rival Advanced Micro Devices has been gaining share in Intel’s mainstay personal computer and server semiconductor markets.
But Tan on Thursday signalled that he had taken charge of the company and was trying to wrest it back from what he viewed as previous missteps.
