Intel Corporation has announced it plans to perform more workforce reductions in California, including its Folsom campus. The tech giant expects to eliminate another 89 positions by the end of this month.
The news of the expected cuts has become public since the company recently filed another Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification notice to the California Employment Development Department.
As the company announces it will be permanently be eliminating the positions, it marks the fourth round of cuts it will make since late December of last year. Those reductions have culminated to a total of 605 eliminated positions across it California campuses so far, 111 of which were from the Folsom location in January, 343 in March and 62 in May.
In June of this year, Intel announced it was originally planning to eliminate 67 positions in the Golden State, however that number has now increased. The newest round of planned cuts reportedly includes 37 research and development positions and another 10 software engineering roles, eight system software development engineers, six system-on-a-chip design engineers, six product marketing engineers and six cloud software development engineers.
Those employees affected have reportedly been notified they will be given the first opportunity to relocated or fill other positions within the company, according to the state filings. The lesser positions would likely come with lower compensation packages than many of the current roles.
“As discussed on prior earnings calls, Intel is working to accelerate its strategy while reducing costs,” reads a statement from Intel. “We have more than 13,000 employees in California and continue to invest in areas core to our business, including our U.S based manufacturing operations, to ensure we are well-positioned for long-term growth.”
As Intel made its earlier cuts, it was reported that the company was struggling amid a sharp downturn in demand for the microprocessors it sells for PCs and data centers. Sales were down at that time company wide by 38% over the six months prior to those initial reductions. The company cited a slower economy and reduced spending from consumers and businesses that stocked up on computers early in the pandemic and have not had a need thereafter.
Intel has also been facing increased competition from rivals such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., AMD and Nvidia, which have been chipping away at Intel’s customer base in various businesses sectors.
Intel has long been Folsom’s largest employer in the private sector with just over 6,100 employees prior the reductions that have taken place which add up to about 10% of its staff in the region. The 1.5 million square foot Folsom facility first opened in 1984.
Aside from the news of additional cuts, Intel announced Wednesday that it has backed out of what was considers to be a proposed major acquisition of an Israeli chipmaker after failing to obtain the required regulatory approval.
The company had announced back in February of last year that it was planning a $5.4 billion acquisition of Tower Semiconductor. The company reportedly was unable to secure the necessary sign-off from regulators in time to secure the deal.
