Intel Is Laying Off Workers While Raking In Public Largesse
Chipmaker Intel has been laying off thousands of its American workers — as it rakes in billions in subsidies from the US government and lavishes multimillion-dollar severance and compensation packages on its former and current CEOs.
Lip-Bu Tan, CEO of Intel, departs following a meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, on August 11, 2025. (Alex Wroblewski / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
It’s not every day that the president of the United States calls for the head of a major company to be fired. But that’s what happened in early August, when President Donald Trump accused Lip-Bu Tan, the new CEO of Intel, of being too cozy with China.
Then in typical fashion, Trump reversed himself and proposed converting the $10.8 billion subsidy Intel had received from the CHIPS Act into an equity stake. Intel accepted the deal, and now the federal government owns a nearly 10 percent nonvoting stake in the company.
While much has been written about Intel’s financial and technical challenges, very little has been said about the impact of management’s cost cutting on the company’s employees.
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