The first announcement that Lip-Bu Tan made a day after becoming the permanent chief executive of Intel was about massive layoffs to right-size the company in accordance with market realities. Now, the extent of those layoffs is becoming clearer, indicating Intel let go of as many as 20,500 employees in about three months. If we add 15,000 positions eliminated by the previous management, that means Intel reduced its headcount by 35,500 people in less than two years.
Intel had 108,900 personnel as of December 28, 2024, which included several thousand Altera employees who are now working for an independent company co-owned by Intel and Silver Lake, with the latter holding a controlling stake. Based on Intel's latest filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company employed 88,400 people — including 83,300 at Intel and 5,100 at Mobileye and other subsidiaries — as of September 27, 2025, which indicates that Intel fired 20,500 people under Lip-Bu Tan's leadership. The layoffs appear to be largely confined to Q2, as evidenced by the massive Q2 restructuring and repairment charges of over $1 billion, compared to just $175 million in Q3.
While initially the chief executive of Intel said that he planned to flatten the company and reduce the number of mid-tier managers, eventually it turned out that the company had axed thousands of engineers and technicians at its Oregon facilities. In fact, only 8% of personnel that were laid off in Oregon had the word 'manager' in their job titles, whereas all the others were various engineers or technicians in various support roles.
Intel's latest financial report for the third quarter of 2025 also indicates that the company reduced its R&D budget by over $800 million year-over-year despite a revenue increase, which is a clear indicator that the company was axing multiple projects and initiatives that were at various stages of research and development.
Indeed, during the Q3 2025 earnings call, Intel's management repeatedly emphasized that the company was still in the process of 'right-sizing' its operations, meaning tightening costs, focusing resources on high-return projects, and maintaining strict capital discipline.
David Zinsner, chief financial officer of Intel, told analysts that Intel is keeping operating expenses flat at roughly $16 billion into 2026, redirecting funds only toward programs with clear strategic or financial payback, which included Intel 18A ramp, 14A process development, AI-centric products, and advanced packaging.
"We remain focused on right-sizing the company to support long-term profitability," said Zinsner. "Operating expenses are being held roughly flat through next year, and we will only invest where we have clear line-of-sight to customer demand. We’ll continue to look for efficiencies across every function to keep Intel lean and competitive."
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Also, the management stressed that the company will only invest in new projects or new production capacity if it foresees customer interest or has confirmed demand, which means restraining headcount growth and keeping capital projects in strict check. However, executives stressed that the 'new' Intel will now focus on cost controls rather than cost cuts.
"Intel today is leaner, sharper, and more focused," said Tan. "We have streamlined overlapping programs and prioritized the businesses that create the highest return: client, data center & AI, and Foundry. This is about building a smaller, stronger Intel, disciplined in cost and deliberate in execution."
Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.
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