In a crushing quarterly update, Intel announced that it will cut more than 15 percent of its workforce, potentially impacting over 15,000 jobs, as part of a $10 billion cost-reduction plan to regain financial stability. The company reported a second-quarter net loss of $1.6 billion, a significant drop from the net income of $1.5 billion in the same period of 2023. CEO Pat Gelsinger addressed employees, recognizing the magnitude of the layoffs and describing it as a difficult day for the company. In addition to job cuts, the cost-reduction plan involves separate financial reporting for Intel Products and Intel Foundry branches, with the latter seeing an operating loss of $2.8 billion in Q2. Intel has been restructuring its foundries to improve competitiveness, relying on external companies like TSMC for production in the meantime. The company faced further challenges when its 13th- and 14th-generation desktop CPUs experienced instability issues, necessitating a fix to prevent further problems and potential permanent damage caused by microcode errors.
