You heard it here first!
28 replies (most recent on top)
September is the best time to start looking for Fall Foliage, Outsourcing, and Site sales (FM, HF, NM, IS)
Yes there will be more. Last weeks layoff was to get rid off a lot low performers. Some good performers were also let go but majority were low performers.
Guess who they will let go in the next round to save money?
Clearly there are more phases to this than the current effort to clean up the TD and Ronler fab headcount, with minor reductions elsewhere.
The race to catch up on nodes is over and there are no meaningful external customers, so Ronler finally ran out of lame excuses for being so overstaffed and costing the company billions of losses.
Rumor is that something big is coming in October and my guess is the first of several major shifts to outsource contractors, and possibly the sale of some of the older fabs (IR,AZ) or entire sites (NM, IS).
The thing about the badge flipping is that it usually is for entire job roles, and the workers have to reapply at the contractor for their old role. So there is no manager interference in the selection and some will fall out of that process.
Unlike the usual BB to GB or ICE, when entire roles are shifted the change is essentially overnight, after prep work is done.
Read about how LBT did this at Cadence and maybe do this while drinking or something.
Nothing says September like a good badge flipping.
@51z The Sept worker-fun woodchipping event has been delayed for a month for additional woodchipper planning & preparation, so will start in October.
As usual, conflicting announcements will be made, then just when it seems nothing will happen, it does.
Pretty sure there will be more. This layoff in July is not going to solve anything big. It will just make shareholders happy because the numbers will look better. Each future headcount reduction will just trim off more fat till some one likes the steak.
Fabs are in for several years of reductions and reorg.
The cost difference between an Intel fab and TSMC or Samsung (or even GF) is simply too great.
Sept may be early but there are rumors of another round of restructuring in Oct.
For the fabs, this is going to be a quarterly thing until IFS is profitable.
Mark that on your stress calendar.
@3te Do keep in mind that September is the traditional start of woodchipping season.
OP its not even late to talk about sep 2026 layoffs. This company is managed by narcissists
@3sk It is never too soon to start talking about the next trip to the wood chipper, especially for fab workers.
Seems OP created an unfunny joke which is becoming less funny, especially for the fabs.
Well, September is the traditional start of the layoff season, with a few small layoffs to get everyone interested, followed by a layoff playoff and the championship layoff.
Awesome!
If I am going to get laid off, I would rather it be before the holidays.
Nothing says HO!HO!HO! like a late rent notice.
September is really the best time for layoffs, what with the trees changing colors and all.
@15r The humanoid robots are already being deployed and it is said that manufacturers are extremely interested in this technology.
So like a lot of other technology, there are some early adopters then it hits everywhere, all at once.
Not talking about specialized robots like Amazon uses, or industrial robots which do a fixed task, but mobile and somewhat autonomous robots that at the least know how to do a wider range of tasks reliably.
This is not much different than most of the fab workers, who are trained to operate and maintain a very limited set of tools. Often just a single tool.
They will be like roaches. Once you see 1 of them, start looking for dozens or hundreds of them.
@dp those humanoid bots won't be online for like 5 years, at best, it's all hype.
By September the new hires will be onboard so it makes sense to shed the next batch of useless mouth breathers at that time.
Got to keep recycling the headcount in order to keep costs low.
If RCGs continue to replace under performers, isn't that really an upgrade rather than a layoff?
If the role is moved offshore, is that really a layoff?
If a fab monkey is turned into a contract worker, is that really a layoff?
Asking for a friend.
@b4 I think it means you heard the question here first, but that's not important right now.
September seems too soon for the next round, but no doubt when the humanoid robots are deployed the fabs will over time lose at least half of the existing workers.
Of course by then those workers will have become contract workers.
Also, this is how a lot of companies will bring manufacturing back to the US, because once the labor cost is removed then there is no advantage to offshoring. In fact, it would be more risky at that point to offshore.
I heard the September layoffs were like so totally, I'm sure, like oh my god.
OP asked a question and said you heard it here first. Wtf does that mean bi--h
I'm so excited. I can hardly wait.
I'm waiting for the Spring 2026 layoffs, cause that one will be very exciting.
Not like they can get all the useless mouth breathers in one go round.
Should just make this a twice a year thing, driven by performance (or lack thereof) evaluations.