News: 1654800117

  ARM Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)

Intel freezes hiring for PC chip team, cites 'macroeconomic uncertainty'

(2022/06/09)


Intel's PC chip division is the latest team caught in the current tide of economic uncertainty, as the company freezes hiring in the group.

In an internal memo [1]obtained by Reuters, Intel told employees all hiring and job requisitions in the client computing group were on hold for at least two weeks. During that time, the chipmaker will reportedly be reevaluating its priorities with "increased focus and prioritization in our spending [to] help us weather macroeconomic uncertainty," Intel said.

The client computing group, which designs end-user hardware, is Intel's largest by sales, having generated $9.3 billion of the $18.4 billion Intel made [2]last quarter . Despite its place at the top, the CCG's Q1 takings were still down 13 percent compared to the same time in 2021. It was also the only Intel division to lose money compared to Q1 2021, another potential reason for the hiring freeze in the sector.

[3]

CEO Pat Gelsinger told employees on Tuesday that, outside of the CCG, Intel was slowing hiring but still planned to bring 23,000 new people onboard in the next 90 days. The company also said all existing job offers in the CCG would also still be honored, unlike some other tech firms - [4]looking at you Coinbase.

[5]

Along with the hiring freeze, Intel said it also plans to save money by cutting travel for members of the CCG, limiting their participation in industry conferences and asking the team to hold meetings virtually.

[6]PC shipments sink amid steady waves of supply chain, war disruptions

[7]Tech hiring freeze doesn't mean people won't leave

[8]Buoyant tech sector bucking the UK trend, says consultancy

[9]Red Hat forced to hire cheaper, less senior engineers amid budget freeze

Intel hasn't been having a great go of things lately: the chip giant's stock has lost 28 percent of its value in the past twelve months, Intel has been [10]dethroned by Samsung as the most profitable chip manufacturer, competition between the Santa Clara processor purveyor and TSMC has been [11]heating up and all the while it has lost Apple as a customer, causing further [12]market share loss to the Arm-based M1 chips.

The hiring freeze couldn't come at a much worse time, either: Just days ago Apple unveiled the [13]M2 processor , kicking off a new generation of its in-house chips, which have already been a [14]smash success for the iCompany. PC sales are also predicted to decline through 2022, with [15]IDC forecasting an 8.2 percent year-over-year drop, the market's first in three years.

Intel's other business units are a sensible place for the company to redirect funds: All are growing, following an [16]industry trend of investing in datacenter and IT infrastructure in 2022. ®

Get our [17]Tech Resources



[1] https://www.reuters.com/technology/intel-freezes-hiring-pc-chip-decision-least-two-weeks-2022-06-08/

[2] https://www.intc.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/1541/intel-reports-first-quarter-2022-financial-results#:~:text=First%2Dquarter%20GAAP%20revenue%20of,and%20Intel%20Foundry%20Services%20businesses.

[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YqJtguun4NJ34-xzFY-hvwAAAEU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[4] https://www.marketwatch.com/story/i-thought-it-was-a-sick-joke-they-gave-up-other-job-offers-to-work-for-coinbase-and-are-now-unemployed-11654694137

[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YqJtguun4NJ34-xzFY-hvwAAAEU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/09/pc_sales_to_shrink/

[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/02/tech_layoff_hiring/

[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/07/buoyant_uk_tech_sector_bucking/

[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/05/red_hat_jobs/

[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/14/samsung_dethrones_intel_gartner/

[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/18/tsmc_2nm_2025_timeline/

[12] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/12/apple_arm_m1_intel_x86_market/

[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/06/apple_wwdc_2022_the_m2/

[14] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/28/apple_mac_sales/

[15] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/09/pc_sales_to_shrink/?td=rt-3a

[16] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/27/enterprise_tech_spending_up/

[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/



70 years ago we were told ...

Version 1.0

"It would appear that we have reached the limits of what it is possible to achieve with computer technology, although one should be careful with such statements, as they tend to sound pretty silly in 5 years." - John Von Neumann, circa 1949.

There's a rumor about

DS999

That Intel is going to issue a profit warning for the coming quarter, and coming fiscal year.

So you gotta at least be able to tell Wall Street you're freezing new hires or they will punish you for investing in your future when they want to see that money in the profit column because who cares what happens a few years out?

pimppetgaeghsr

For 2 weeks? Sounds like it will do more damage than good or the "2 weeks" is just corporate speak for "until further notice".

Chip Salzenberg sent me a complete patch to add System V IPC (msg, sem and
shm calls), so I added them. If that bothers you, you can always undefine
them in config.sh. :-) -- Larry Wall in <9384@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>