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Intel Surpasses Expectations with $15.4 Billion Q4 Revenue

Chip-maker Intel.(Photo:Twitter)

The full-year revenue was $54.2 billion, down 14 per cent YoY from $63.1 billion a year ago….reports Asian Lite News

Chip-maker Intel has registered $15.4 billion in revenue in its fourth quarter (Q4) of 2023, up 10 per cent year-over-year (YoY).

The full-year revenue was $54.2 billion, down 14 per cent YoY from $63.1 billion a year ago.

Intel’s consumer chips witnessed 33 per cent gains ($8.8 billion revenue) and the company saw “record performance notebook shipments in the quarter.”

The company made $2.66 billion in profit in Q4, up from $796 million loss in the same period last year.

“We delivered strong Q4 results, surpassing expectations for the fourth consecutive quarter with revenue at the higher end of our guidance,” said Pat Gelsinger, Intel CEO.

“In 2024, we remain relentlessly focused on achieving process and product leadership, continuing to build our external foundry business and at-scale global manufacturing, and executing our mission to bring AI everywhere as we drive long-term value for stakeholders,” he added.

According to David Zinsner, Intel CFO, the company continued to drive operational efficiencies in the fourth quarter, and comfortably achieved its commitment to deliver $3 billion in cost savings in 2023.

“We expect to unlock further efficiencies in 2024 and beyond as we implement our new internal foundry model, which is designed to drive greater transparency and accountability and higher returns on our owners’ capital,” Zinsner added.

For the full year, the company generated $11.5 billion in cash from operations and paid dividends of $3.1 billion.

In client computing, Intel ushered in the age of the AI PC with Intel Core Ultra processors.

Built on Intel 4, the Intel Core Ultra processor is Intel’s most AI-capable and power-efficient client processor with dedicated acceleration capabilities across the CPU, GPU and NPU.

Global Semiconductor Industry Faces 8.8% Revenue Decline

The global semiconductor industry’s revenue declined 8.8 per cent in 2023 due to a slowdown in enterprise and consumer spending.

The overall 2023 semiconductor revenue rankings saw some big changes from 2022, like Intel reclaiming the top spot from Samsung as the latter suffered a lot from the memory sector downtrend as well as lacklustre smartphone business, according to Counterpoint Research.

AI provided positive news to the semiconductor industry, emerging as a key content and revenue driver, especially in the second half of the year.

NVIDIA appeared to be the largest beneficiary, followed by AMD. Both will be growing their AI-related businesses in the coming years.

“In general, we believe artificial intelligence (AI server, AI PC, AI smartphone, etc.) will continue to be a major organic growth driver in the semiconductor industry in 2024, followed by the memory sector’s rebound due to normalizing oversupply situation and demand recovery,” said senior analyst William Li.

The automotive sector could be another driver for the market due to content growth, which was already a key revenue driver for Infineon and STMicroelectronics in 2023, Li added.

Intel reclaimed its first place in semiconductor revenue rankings in 2023, though it reported a 16 per cent YoY decline in its revenue largely due to a double-digit YoY shipment decline in both the PC and server segments.

Samsung too was massively affected by the memory market slowdown in both DRAM and NAND segments, reporting a 38 per cent YoY decline in its revenue. The memory market was mainly hit by soft demand in the PC, server and smartphone segments as well as oversupply and excess inventory across the market.

SK hynix and Micron, two other major players in the memory market, also reported huge declines in their revenues at 33 per cent and 36 per cent YoY, respectively.

Intel Accelerates Electric Vehicle Drive

Chip-maker Intel has announced to acquire Silicon Mobility SAS, a fabless silicon and software company that specialises in chips for intelligent electric vehicle (EV) energy management, for an undisclosed sum.

At the ‘CES 2024’ here, the company also announced a new family of AI-enhanced software-defined vehicle system-on-chips (SoCs), with Zeekr as the first original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to adopt the new chip to deliver its generative AI-driven living room experiences to next-generation vehicles.

“Driving innovative AI solutions across the vehicle platform will help the industry navigate the transformation to EVs,” said Jack Weast, vice president and general manager of Intel Automotive.

“The acquisition of Silicon Mobility aligns with our sustainability goals while addressing a critical energy management need for the industry,” he added.

Intel also announced a commitment to deliver the industry’s first open UCIe-based chiplet platform for software-defined vehicles (SDVs).

Intel will work with imec to ensure the packaging technologies meet the rigorous quality and reliability requirements of the automotive industry.

Today, Intel chips are in more than 50 million vehicles, powering infotainment, displays, digital instrument clusters and more.

“Intel’s AI-enhanced SDV SoCs combine the best of AI PC and Intel data centre technologies necessary to support a true software-defined vehicle architecture,” Weast said.

To fuel a faster, smoother transition to EVs and a sustainable SDV, Intel and SAE International announced a committee to deliver an automotive standard for Vehicle Platform Power Management. Intel will chair the committee.

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Intel Explores ChatGPT Apps

Amazon Web Services and Intel.

Intel is also selling its specialised AI, app-building software directly to corporate customers….reports Asian Lite News

Chip-maker Intel is reportedly working with multiple consulting firms to build ChatGPT-like apps for customers, as AI boom catches up with almost every tech company especially rival chipmakers such as Nvidia and Broadcom.

According to a report in The Information, citing sources, Intel is also selling its specialised AI, app-building software directly to corporate customers.

“Intel began the project with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) earlier this year but has added additional consulting-firm partners,” the report mentioned.

Intel was yet to comment on the report.

In May this year, BCG and Intel announced a strategic collaboration to enable generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) using end-to-end Intel AI hardware and software, bringing fully custom and proprietary solutions to enterprise clients while keeping private data in the isolation of their trusted environments.

Together with a custom natural language chatbot interface powered by Intel AI hardware and software, BCG employees were able to retrieve and summarise information via semantic search that was previously buried in long lists of multi-page documents.

“Generative AI requires a truly democratised approach that enables more secure and scalable choice so enterprises can safely benefit from the technology,” according to Sandra Rivera, executive vice president and general manager of the Data Center and AI Group, Intel.

“Our collaboration with BCG allows us to help customers build generative AI applications that require technology optimized across the entire stack completely inside their chosen security perimeter,” Rivera had said in an earlier statement.

Intel has also teased a “Windows refresh” for 2024, reportedly preparing its Meteor Lake desktop platform for Windows 12 amid AI push.

The company recently previewed the next generation of Intel Xeon processors, revealing that 5th Gen Intel Xeon processors will bring a combination of performance improvements and faster memory, while using the same amount of power, to the world’s data centres when they launch on December 14.

Intel has said that AI is giving rise to the ‘Siliconomy,’ a new era of global expansion driven by the magic of silicon and software where AI PCs will dominate our lives.

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Business India News Tech Lite

Gokul Subramaniam Takes Helm at Intel India

Subramaniam is assuming the role of Intel India President in addition to his existing functional responsibility of leading Client Platforms and Systems in CCG….reports Asian Lite News

Global chip major Intel on Wednesday announced the appointment of its veteran executive Gokul Subramaniam as India President.

Subramaniam, who has been with Intel for over 11 years, will be responsible for the company’s overall engineering and design operations in the country, including driving innovation, cross-group efficiencies and execution of Intel products from the site.

He is currently a vice president in the Client Computing Group (CCG) and serves as general manager of Client Platforms and Systems.

Subramaniam is assuming the role of Intel India President in addition to his existing functional responsibility of leading Client Platforms and Systems in CCG.

“I am excited about the engineering prowess we have at the site and the opportunities it brings to accelerate innovation and advance excellence in execution of our engineering programs,” said Subramaniam.

Subramaniam is the inventor on six patents with an additional five filed in the areas of compute, wireless, power management, industrial design, system and software.

Santhosh Viswanathan, Vice President and Managing Director-Sales, Marketing and Communications Group (SMG) for Intel India, will continue to be responsible for the company’s overall business in the country, including driving new revenue and growth opportunities.

Intel India is the company’s largest design and engineering centre outside the US, with state-of-the-art design facilities in Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

Intel has invested over $9 billion in India to date and continues to deepen its R&D and innovation footprint in the country.

In June, Intel India head Nivruti Rai stepped down after spending 29 years with the chip-maker. In her most recent role, she was the India country head and VP of Intel Foundry Services.

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Business Tech Lite Technology

Intel cuts at least 14 jobs in US

Chip-maker Intel.(Photo:Twitter)

The fresh job cuts have been reported to state employment officials and will take effect at the end of the month…reports Asian Lite News

Chip-maker Intel is laying off at least 140 more employees in the US to reduce costs — 89 employees at its Folsom R&D campus and 51 in San Jose, California.

The fresh job cuts have been reported to state employment officials and will take effect at the end of the month, reports Sacramento Inno.

The company is reportedly laying off 10 GPU software development engineers, eight system software development engineers, six cloud software engineers, six product marketing engineers, and six system-on-chip design engineers, along with others.

This latest job cuts mark nearly 500 positions removed from the Folsom R&D campus in the current year. As of early 2022, Intel had 5,300 employees in Folsom, according to Tom’s Hardware.

Intel’s Folsom campus has been used for a variety of R&D activities, including development of SSDs, graphics processors, software and chipsets.

In May this year, the chip manufacturer had confirmed that it plans to further cut its workforce to reduce costs while navigating a challenging macro-economic environment.

The company, however, did not reveal how many employees will be impacted in the upcoming layoffs.

“We are focused on identifying cost reductions and efficiency gains through multiple initiatives, including some business and function-specific workforce reductions in areas across the company,” an Intel spokesperson was quoted as saying in reports.

According to reports, the semiconductor major may lay off up to 20 per cent of the employees at its client computing and data centre divisions.

Last October, Intel announced plans to cut its expenses by $3 billion this year.

Intel laid off more than 500 employees in California in job cuts announced last fall, according to filings with state workforce agencies.

Intel employs more than 22,000 at its Washington County campuses, according to reports.

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Business India News Tech Lite

Intel confirms further job cuts

Chip-maker Intel.(Photo:Twitter)

The company did not reveal how many employees will be impacted in the upcoming layoffs…reports Asian Lite News

Chip manufacturer Intel has confirmed that it plans to further cut its workforce to reduce costs while navigating a challenging macro-economic environment, as tech layoffs continue unabated.

The company, however, did not reveal how many employees will be impacted in the upcoming layoffs.

In a statement to USA Today, Intel said that it is working to accelerate its strategy while navigating a challenging macro-economic environment.

“We are focused on identifying cost reductions and efficiency gains through multiple initiatives, including some business and function-specific workforce reductions in areas across the company,” an Intel spokesperson was quoted as saying.

According to reports, the semiconductor major may lay off up to 20 per cent of the employees at its client computing and data centre divisions.

“Very unfortunate news, but massive layoffs at Intel coming! Intel’s Data Centre and Client computing groups are receiving 10 per cent budget cuts, It’s up to divisions to figure out how to cut, given fixed costs, means as much as 20 per cent layoffs in groups,” tweeted Dylan Patel, chief analyst at market research firm SemiAnalysis.

Last October, Intel announced plans to cut its expenses by $3 billion this year.

Intel laid off more than 500 employees in California in job cuts announced last fall, according to filings with state workforce agencies.

“These are difficult decisions, and we are committed to treating impacted employees with dignity and respect,” the company had said in a statement.

Intel employs more than 22,000 at its Washington County campuses, according to Oregon Live.

Reports surfaced in January that Intel was making deeper job cuts that will hit at least hundreds of employees in the Bay Area and nearby places in the US.

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Business Technology World News

Intel, ARM strike ‘chip’ deal

Intel is currently investing in leading-edge manufacturing capacity around the world to serve sustained long-term demand for chips….reports Asian Lite News

In a significant move, chip-maker Intel on Wednesday said it will work with British chip designer ARM to build low-power compute system-on-chips (SoCs).

The collaboration will focus on mobile SoC designs first, but allows for potential design expansion into automotive, Internet of Things (IoT), data centre, aerospace and government applications.

ARM customers designing their next-generation mobile SoCs will benefit from leading-edge Intel 18A process technology, which delivers new breakthrough transistor technologies for improved power and performance.

“Intel’s collaboration with ARM will expand the market opportunity for Intel Foundry Services (IFS) and open up new options and approaches for any fabless company that wants to access best-in-class CPU IP and the power of an open system foundry with leading-edge process technology,” said Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel.

Intel is currently investing in leading-edge manufacturing capacity around the world, including significant expansions in the US and the EU, to serve sustained long-term demand for chips.

“ARM’s collaboration with Intel enables IFS as a critical foundry partner for our customers as we deliver the next generation of world-changing products built on ARM,” said Rene Haas, CEO of ARM.

This collaboration will enable a more balanced global supply chain for foundry customers working in mobile SoC design on ARM-based CPU cores. By unlocking ARM’s leading-edge compute portfolio and world-class IP on Intel process technology, ARM partners will be able to take full advantage of Intel’s open system foundry model, which goes beyond traditional wafer fabrication to include packaging, software and chiplets.

Intel 18A delivers two breakthrough technologies, PowerVia for optimal power delivery and RibbonFET gate all around (GAA) transistor architecture for optimal performance and power.

“IFS and ARM will develop a mobile reference design, allowing demonstration of the software and system knowledge for foundry customers,” said the companies.

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Business

Intel begins layoffs

Amazon Web Services and Intel.

The company started its expected layoffs in California with at least 201 employees as “part of a broader cost cutting effort”…reports Asian Lite News

Chip-maker Intel has begun layoffs and is also offering thousands of manufacturing employees globally three months of unpaid leave as it aims to weather the poor sales amid global macroeconomic conditions.

The company started its expected layoffs in California with at least 201 employees as “part of a broader cost cutting effort”, reports CRN.

The layoffs are scheduled to begin from January 31, the report said, adding that according to the “Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notifications”, 111 employees will be laid off at Intel’s Folsom, California location while “90 employees will be asked to go from Santa Clara location, where the company is headquartered”.

In October, Intel said it plans to drive nearly $3 billion in annual savings in the near term and $8 billion to $10 billion by the end of 2025, and these savings will majorly come from “people costs” from both operations and sales departments.

According to another report in Oregon Live, Intel is offering thousands of manufacturing employees three months of unpaid leave.

“Retaining our manufacturing talent is a key element of positioning Intel for long-term growth. Voluntary time off programmes allow us an opportunity to reduce short term costs and offer employees attractive time off options,” the company was quoted as saying in the report.

Intel is Oregon’s largest corporate employer, with 22,000 people assigned to its manufacturing, research and administrative campuses in Washington County.

The Financial Times reported last week that thousands of Intel workers in Ireland were offered three months of unpaid leave.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, during the company’s Q3 earnings call in October, said the company is “responding to the current environment by taking aggressive actions to reduce costs”.

“Inclusive in our efforts will be steps to optimise our headcount. These are difficult decisions affecting our loyal Intel family, but we need to balance increased investment,” the Intel CEO had announced.

Earlier reports said that the chip-maker is planning job cuts that can run in thousands, especially hitting its sales and marketing teams, as consumer PC sales nosedive globally.

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Business

Intel chips set to get costly

In April, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said that he expects the semiconductor industry to suffer supply shortages until 2024….reports Asian Lite News

Chip-maker Intel is rising prices on a broad range of microprocessors owing to a supply-chain crisis in the tough global macro-economic environment, the media reported on Thursday.

According to Nikkei Asia, the company informed customers that it “will raise prices on a majority of its microprocessors and peripheral chip products later this year, citing rising costs”.

The company is yet to finalise price hikes which could take Intel’s flagship products such as central processing units for servers and computers into account, according to the report.

The hike will also include products like chips for Wi-Fi and other connectivity options.

In April, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said that he expects the semiconductor industry to suffer supply shortages until 2024.

Gelsinger explained that the issue may drag on due to a lack of key manufacturing components.

“In the supply chain, lockdowns in Shanghai and the war in Ukraine have demonstrated more than ever that the world needs more resilient and more geographically balanced semiconductor manufacturing,” he said.

The chip shortage cost the US economy $240 billion last year.

“We expect the industry will continue to see challenges until at least 2024 in areas like foundry capacity and tool availability,” Gelsinger noted.

According to Counterpoint research, Global semiconductor chip shortages are likely to continue easing during the second half of 2022 as demand-supply gaps decrease across most components

Meanwhile, Global cellular IoT module chipset shipments grew 35 per cent (on-year) in the first quarter this year, and Qualcomm led the market with 42 per cent share and 30 per cent growth across nine out of the 10 key regions globally, a new report has said.

China was the key region for cellular IoT module chipset consumption during the quarter, reports Counterpoint Research.

PC, router/CPE and industrial were the top three applications for 5G.

“Qualcomm, UNISOC and ASR held the top three positions in the global cellular IoT module chipset market in Q1 2022, accounting for nearly 75 per cent of the total shipments,” said research analyst Anish Khajuria.

Qualcomm has been broadening its IoT chipset portfolio, targeting premium 4G and 5G solutions for verticals such as retail, automotive, industrial robotics and smart cities.

It is also collaborating with several industry application and technology providers, including Microsoft, ZTE, BMW and Bosch, to focus on high-value artificial intelligence and 5G IoT capabilities, also termed as the 5G AIoT segment, the repoert mentioned.

“The cellular modem chipset competition is heating up in the IoT module space with a growing number of players entering the higher-volume LPWA and lower-category 4G LTE (Cat 1 and Cat 1 bis) segments,” said Vice President Research, Neil Shah.

“However, the low-power and less advanced applications will continue to prevail into the next decade and we could see some adoption of SoC-based integrated solutions, Shah added.

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Intel exits Russia

“Effective immediately, we have suspended all business operations in Russia,” said the company…reports Asian Lite News

US technology company Intel, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of computer components and electronic devices, said it has suspended its activities in Russia over the situation in Ukraine.

“Effective immediately, we have suspended all business operations in Russia,” the company said.

“We are working to support all of our employees through this difficult situation, including our 1,200 employees in Russia. We have also implemented business continuity measures to minimize disruption to our global operations,” it said.

Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine on February 24 in response to calls from the Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics for protection against intensifying attacks by Ukrainian troops. The Russian Defense Ministry said the special operation, which targets Ukrainian military infrastructure, aims to “demilitarize and denazify” Ukraine.

Moscow has said it has no plans to occupy Ukraine. Western nations have imposed numerous sanctions on Russia. (ANI/Sputnik)

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Business

Intel to invest $19 billion for chip plant in Germany

The company is also in discussions with Italy to build an Assembly and packing facility there at a cost of up to $4.9 billion…reports Asian Lite News

Chipmaker Intel said it plans to build a semiconductor plant in Germany as part of an investment of up to 80 billion euros ($88 billion) in Europe over the next decade.

The initial outlay for the facility in Magdeburg, the capital of Saxony-Anhalt, is 17 billion euros ($19 billion), reports TechCrunch.

The so-called “mega-site” will actually comprise two factories. Planning will start right away with construction expected to get under way in the first half of next year, as long as Intel gets the thumbs up from the European Commission.

Production should commence at what Intel is calling “Silicon Junction” in 2027. As such, the plant won’t help offset the global chip shortage any time soon, the report said.

Intel said the dual plants will build chips using its top-of-the-line Angstrom-era transistor tech. It expects to create 7,000 construction jobs for the duration of the build, 3,000 permanent positions and thousands more jobs across partners and suppliers.

Elsewhere, Intel will invest another 12 billion euros ($13 billion) to expand a factory in Leixlip, Ireland. It will double the manufacturing space and expand foundry services there.

The company is also in discussions with Italy to build an Assembly and packing facility there at a cost of up to $4.9 billion.

Intel plans to build its European research and development hub near Plateau de Saclay, France. It expects to create 1,000 jobs as a result, with 450 of those opening up by the end of 2024.

The chipmaker aims to set up its main European foundry design center in France too. Further investments are earmarked for Poland and Spain.

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