Intel Lays Off 2,400 Employees and Discontinues RealSense

Semiconductor Giant in Crisis Mode Intel Lays Off 2,400 Employees and Discontinues RealSense

2025-07-16 From Manuel Christa | Translated by AI 2 min Reading Time

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Intel's hemorrhaging continues: The company is cutting thousands of jobs in its core business, selling off peripheral areas, and openly admitting how far it lags behind the competition. The tone of CEO Lip-Bu Tan is unusually humble.

Intel's CEO Lip-Bu Tan: "We must show humility."(Image: Intel) — Intel's CEO Lip-Bu Tan: "We must show humility."
(Image: Intel)

The California-based semiconductor giant Intel is once again cutting thousands of jobs worldwide. Not only in middle management, which the new CEO aimed to streamline significantly, but now also in its core business: in Oregon, a key production site, 2,400 employees are losing their jobs. The company confirmed this to U.S. media over the weekend. The layoffs are part of a larger restructuring plan designed to reduce costs and make Intel competitive again.

Already last year, Intel began a large-scale cost-cutting round. Now it mainly affects the Hillsboro location, where the company has been present for decades. The job cuts impact both production lines and development departments.

Harsh Reality Check

The cuts are accompanied by unusually candid words from the new leadership team. CEO Lip-Bu Tan admitted that Intel has largely lost its edge over the competition: "We are not among the top 10 leading semiconductor companies in the world." A remarkable statement for a company that once was considered the undisputed leader in the industry.

Tan sees the causes in years of strategic missteps, slow innovation cycles, and a missed shift towards the foundry business. The company is currently trying to regain lost ground with multi-billion dollar investments and a new manufacturing strategy. However, the catch-up process is arduous, as the latest decisions demonstrate.

Realsense Takes Its Own Path

As part of this realignment, Intel has now spun off the 3D camera technology division Realsense. The new start-up, also named Realsense, has already secured $50 million in start-up capital.

The technology behind Realsense was originally developed by Intel for use in robotics, augmented reality, and automation. After interest from the core business waned, the company had already discontinued part of the platform in 2021. This marks the final closure of the Realsense chapter for Intel.

With the spin-off of Realsense and the earlier sale of the NAND memory division to SK hynix, Intel is consistently pursuing the goal of shedding peripheral activities and focusing on its core business. However, Intel is now losing ground precisely in that area.

Response to Rising Pressure

The latest decisions are a response to the increasing pressure from competitors like TSMC, Samsung, and Nvidia. While these companies lead technologically and financially, Intel lags behind in transitioning to new manufacturing technologies and utilizing its factories.

Even CEO Lip-Bu Tan himself knows that the path back to the top is not a given. "We must show humility and learn our lessons," he said. (mc)

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Date: 08.12.2025

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