Intel Corp is to cut up to 12,000 jobs worldwide as it seeks to shake up its business to reduce dependence on the slumping personal computer market, the US tech giant said on Tuesday.
Known as the leading PC chipmaker, Intel has in recent years been looking to shift to mobile and emerging technologies such as healthcare, wearables and other connected devices.
The restructuring will eliminate about 11 percent of Intel’s workforce by the middle of next year and aims to “accelerate evolution from a PC company to one that powers the cloud and billions of smart, connected computing devices,” the California group said in a statement.
Photo: EPA
“It is not a surprise,” NPD analyst Stephen Baker said. “For everybody who has made their bed in old tech, trying to lie in it is pretty uncomfortable right now.”
Intel shares fell more than 2 percent in after-hours trade on the news to US$30.90.
“Our results over the past year demonstrate a strategy that is working and a solid foundation for growth,” Intel chief executive Brian Krzanich said. “The opportunity now is to accelerate this momentum and build on our strengths.”
Intel made the announcement as it reported a modest 3 percent rise in first-quarter profit to US$2 billion, with revenues growing 7 percent to US$13.7 billion.
“Our first-quarter results tell the story of Intel’s ongoing strategic transformation, which is progressing well and will accelerate in 2016,” Krzanich said.
Intel said it would be increasing investments in key growth areas, which include the range of smart home and other connected devices known as the “Internet of Things,” as well as its data centers and computer memory operation.
Krzanich has spoken frequently about the shift in computing, and laid out his vision more than a year ago, telling the Consumer Electronics Show that the industry would be “unleashed” by wearables.
“So computing becomes unwired, and everything becomes smart and connected,” he said at the time.
Intel said the job cuts would come from “a combination of voluntary and involuntary departures,” and a re-evaluation of its global operations.
Intel is to set aside US$1.2 billion to cover the costs of the job reductions, and expects the program to save US$750 million this year and US$1.4 billion by the middle of next year.
The company said that chief financial officer Stacy Smith would “transition to a new role leading sales, manufacturing and operations once his successor is in place.”
Sales of personal computers slid for the sixth consecutive quarter at the start of this year, falling to levels not seen since 2007, market trackers reported last week.
Analysts are also anticipating a relatively weak environment for PC sales during the first half of this year because businesses are still testing switching to machines powered by the latest Windows 10 software.
And the consumer market remains cobbled by volatility in stocks, commodities and currencies, International Data Corp said.
New households are not adopting PCs like they used to, especially in emerging markets, where smartphones are often preferred for online access, Gartner analysts said.
However, analysts expect to see some rebound in PC sales later this year as part of a “Windows 10 refresh” movement.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”