Major layoffs are expected at Intel Israel, after the global chip giant Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) announced last night that it is cutting 12,000 jobs worldwide, 11% of its workforce. The downsizing comes on the back of a downturn in PC chip sales due to increased use of clouds and smartphones for computer purposes.
Intel is Israel's largest high-tech employer with a staff of 10,000. The company exported $4.1 billion of goods in 2015, 11% of Israel's high-tech exports, slightly down from $4.25 billion in 2014.
Inevitably there will be layoffs in Israel with cuts being made gradually through mid-2017. However, with a new fab coming online in Kiryat Gat, the hope is that the cuts will be well below the 11% for the corporation as a whole.
Furthermore, Intel said that, "The data center and Internet of Things (IoT) businesses are Intel’s primary growth engines, with memory and field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) accelerating these opportunities - fueling a virtuous cycle of growth for the company."
These are areas in which Israel is strong. Only last week it was announced that Intel would be building large offices and laboratories in Petah Tikva. Last month Intel acquired Israeli sports imaging startup Replay Technologies for $175 million, so that overall Intel operations in Israel would seem to be expanding.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 20, 2016
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2016