Intel has announced that it will lay off around 15% of its global workforce (~ 15,000 employees) and cancel several large-scale chip factory projects as part of a major plan to cut costs and recover from ongoing financial struggles. The decision follows the company’s second-quarter (Q2 2025) earnings report, in which it posted a net loss of $2.9 billion. The loss was largely caused by $1.9 billion in restructuring charges and nearly $1 billion in other write-downs and impairment costs. Notably, CEO Lip-Bu Tan (who took over in March 2025 after Pat Gelsinger stepped down) is leading a company-wide overhaul aimed at stabilizing Intel’s finances.
In the second quarter of 2025, Intel reported revenue of $12.9 billion, which was a bit higher than what analysts had predicted. However, the company’s losses overshadowed that figure. After adjusting for certain one-time costs, Intel ended up with a loss of 10 cents per share (worse than what most analysts had anticipated). The latest earnings report clearly shows that the company is under financial pressure as it tries to compete with major rivals in the semiconductor industry like Nvidia, TSMC, and AMD.
And now to address these challenges, the Santa Clara-headquartered giant is significantly reducing its workforce, with plans to bring total headcount down to about 75,000 employees by the end of the year. This marks a reduction of more than 20% from the 96,400 employees reported in June. Apart from layoffs, the company will also count on employees leaving on their own and permanently eliminating some roles to reach that goal. Internally, the company has already removed about 50% of its middle-management layers to streamline its structure and improve decision-making speed.
Additionally, the firm is also scaling back its global manufacturing plans. The company has cancelled plans to build new chip fabrication plants in Germany and Poland, both of which were expected to receive billions of dollars in investment. Construction on a large facility in Ohio has also been delayed, and chip packaging operations in Costa Rica are being shut down. Those functions will be moved to Intel facilities in Vietnam and Malaysia. Apart from the cost-cutting and operational changes, Intel has also announced a return-to-office policy. Starting September 1, all hybrid employees will be required to work onsite at least four days a week.
Despite all these efforts to reduce spending, the company is still putting money into its most advanced chip technology. It is mainly working on two new chip designs, called 14A and 18A, which will be used in its upcoming Panther Lake processors and future AI products. However, the company said that if it cannot attract outside customers for its 14A process, it might stop making chips for other businesses altogether.
Notably, this is not the first time Intel has cut jobs to deal with financial pressure. Earlier in August 2024, the company laid off around 15% of its staff. Then, in April 2025, the company reportedly planned to cut more than one-fifth of its global workforce. More recently, the firm is said to have laid off over 500 employees in Oregon, where its largest site in the world is located.