Live data from Hacker News

Intel plans thousands of job cuts in face of PC slowdown

bloomberg.com

81–90 of 484 posts

Re: Intel plans thousands of job cuts in face of PC slowdown

#81

Isn't this just a culmination of nearly a decade of unforced errors and mismanaged strategy? I'm a complete outsider but I see a couple of fundamental huge misses by Intel over the past 10 or so years: 1) Completely missed the boat on mobile. Their ARM-competitive chips (Atom, etc.)... weren't. Missed on every measure from power to performance. Let Qualcomm and Samsung eat their lunch. 2) Missed too many ticks and re…

> It's absolutely incredible to watch these formerly phenomenally innovative companies falter at that very core competency of staying cutting edge but we see it happen over and over again. To be frank, I think that's a great thing. I don't want companies to stay giant in perpetuity, I think it's great that they are essentially "recycled" when new, better companies come along and eat their lunch. If anything I think i…

> I think that's a great thing. I don't want companies to stay giant in perpetuity...

Except that semiconductors are a national security issue at the moment.

Re: Intel plans thousands of job cuts in face of PC slowdown

#82
Intel invested a lot into EUV thus enabling ASML to do it, but did not take advantage of the technology because they thought not to take "risks" even though they could have easily set up different teams invested into different technologies and picked the best one. Business people running the company was a failed experiment clearly.

Good thing Pat is back and now going with EUV to remain competitive.

Re: Intel plans thousands of job cuts in face of PC slowdown

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's absolutely incredible to watch these formerly phenomenally innovative companies falter at that very core competency of staying cutting edge but we see it happen over and over again. To be frank, I think that's a great thing. I don't want companies to stay giant in perpetuity, I think it's great that they are essentially "recycled" when new, better companies come along and eat their lunch. If anything I think i…

> I think it's great that they are essentially "recycled" when new, better companies come along and eat their lunch. Don't you have on the order of tens of thousands of dollars invested in Intel through retirement savings, though? When S&P 500 companies fail, your retirement savings become worthless. (Apple is really the one you want to watch out for, though!)

Isnt this only a concern if you plan to retire in the next 5 ish years? Even 5 years seems a while to correct itself unless there’s a larger market implosion. The last 5 years has seen the tail end of a recession and a pandemic

Re: Intel plans thousands of job cuts in face of PC slowdown

#85

I’ve been through two layoffs at tech companies - one of 14,000 and one of 15,000. One touched a lot of teams including my own. The second was mostly smoke and mirrors - they took multiple factories and supply chain employees and sold them or outsourced them to a company that picked up the payroll for those employees. Only a handful of roles were truly culled. The announcement of the layoffs was theatre for Wall Stre…

Sorry, care to explain why did you mention Wall Street in your post? What does it signify?

[deleted]

Re: Intel plans thousands of job cuts in face of PC slowdown

#86
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Intel Inside" worked..

I wonder if it did? Who bought a laptop because it had an Intel CPU? I know I always bought Intel laptops because Intel laptops were the only things available, not because I have some high view of Intel as a brand. I imagine the vast majority of laptop buyers wouldn't even know what an Intel is.

> Who bought a laptop because it had an Intel CPU?

If you're a Linux user, Intel integrated graphics have always been the most compatible and most well-supported option.

Re: Intel plans thousands of job cuts in face of PC slowdown

#87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I asked an Intel chip designer more than 10 years ago why they were not prioritizing mobile chips. He didn't have a good answer. It has been obvious for so long that everything was moving to phones, tablets, etc. The fact that Intel has no foot at all in that door is astonishing to me.

It happens. Data center computing is profitable, and Intel mastered the sales motion long ago. IBM never really got off mainframes for similar reasons. It's a variation of the Innovator's Dilemma.

I think IBMs case is a bit different -- after all, other companies may have innovated in the space, but they are the ones who actually came up with the PC standard we still use today (and then quickly lost control of it). By comparison, Intel has nothing to show on the mobile space, just a few half hearted attempts at mobile CPUs that fizzled out.

Re: Intel plans thousands of job cuts in face of PC slowdown

#89
post #41
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they are talking about the previous captain that pointed them at the iceberg.

Brian Krzanich was cancelled/fired for sleeping with a coworker, so the then-CFO Bob Swan was made CEO after Intel tried to hire "externally" for a year or so. After MBA'fying Intel for a couple of years, he left to a16z, a perfect place for people like him. Pat Gelsinger then joined, probably too late, to try to steer the ship back in the right direction. Intel as an organization is finished. (I worked at Intel for…

They have US fabs, they are too big to fail from the perspective of the US government.

Re: Intel plans thousands of job cuts in face of PC slowdown

#90

Whoa that's a lot of people. The financialization of the global economy has been disaster of boom bust cycles that destroys the mental health of the population.

>financialization of the global economy has been disaster of boom bust cycles

??? Hasn't there been booms and bust cycles in america since founding?

Post reply on HN