Intel cuts more than 100 jobs at headquarters, shuts automotive unit

In the clearest sign yet that nothing is off-limits, Intel is moving to cut more than 100 roles tied to its Santa Clara headquarters, phase out a swath of global marketing jobs, and dismantle its small but symbolic automotive technology unit. The cuts mark yet another escalation in CEO Lip-Bu Tan’s aggressive campaign to overhaul the company’s cost base and organizational sprawl.

A June 19 notice filed under California’s WARN Act revealed that 107 positions will be eliminated beginning July 15. The affected roles span high-level technical and strategic posts: physical design engineers, cloud architects, project managers, and even a vice president of IT. Workers were given either a 60-day layoff notice or an abbreviated four-week notification with a severance package including nine weeks of pay and benefits.

The latest disclosure comes amid an ongoing transformation that is reshaping not just Intel’s headcount but also its business model. In internal messages to employees published by The Oregonian, the company said it will outsource much of its global marketing operation to consulting firm Accenture, citing confidence in AI-enabled customer engagement strategies. The shift is expected to yield “significant changes to team structures,” Intel said, and “only lean teams” will remain. Employees were told they would learn their individual fates by July 11.

Intel declined to disclose how many marketing jobs will be cut, but the move is notable for its breadth. It effectively removes an entire tier of internal communication and brand strategy, once core to the company’s presence in both consumer and enterprise markets, and replaces it with an external AI-driven function.

At the same time, Intel confirmed it is winding down its in-house automotive architecture business, a group it says was part of its client computing division. While the company never reported financial figures for the unit, Intel has claimed its chips power more than 50 million vehicles globally. The closure will leave “most” of its automotive staff without roles, though Intel said it would honor existing customer commitments.

The decision does not impact Mobileye, Intel’s Israel-based autonomous vehicle subsidiary, which operates independently and remains one of the company’s few high-profile bets in automotive technology.

These latest cuts come just days after revelations that Intel plans to eliminate up to 20% of its global factory workforce, including hundreds of positions at its flagship Kiryat Gat plant in Israel. Once viewed as strategically immune, even key chip fabrication facilities are no longer off limits in Intel’s restructuring calculus.

The company said in response to Calcalist's report on the impending layoffs in Kiryat Gat: "As we announced earlier this year, we are taking steps to become a leaner, faster and more efficient company. Removing organizational complexity and empowering our engineers will enable us to better serve the needs of our customers and strengthen our execution. We are making these decisions based on careful consideration of what’s needed to position our business for the future, and we will treat people with care and respect as we complete this important work."