Infineon announced on Monday that it will eliminate 1,400 jobs worldwide as part of a broader trend of layoffs in the tech industry. The German semiconductor company also plans to shift another 1,400 positions to countries with lower labor costs. The job cuts will include several hundred positions at Infineon’s German plant.
This move follows a wave of layoffs from other tech giants, including Intel, which recently revealed plans to cut 17,500 jobs, or 15% of its workforce, after a more than 50 percent drop in its market value this year.
For the April-June quarter, Infineon reported revenues of €3.7 billion ($4 billion), marking a 9% decline from the previous year and falling short of its forecast of €3.8 billion ($4.17 billion), Verdict reported.
CEO Jochen Hanebeck commented that the recovery in key markets is proceeding slowly, with prolonged weak economic conditions leading to higher inventory levels than end demand.
“The recovery in our target markets is progressing only slowly,” CEO Jochen Hanebeck said, adding: “Prolonged weak economic momentum has resulted in inventory levels in many areas overlaying end demand.”
The job reductions are part of Infineon’s ongoing Step Up cost-saving initiative, which is expected to positively affect the company’s fiscal year 2025.
The trend of mass layoffs in the tech sector has continued into 2024, following a challenging year in 2023. Nearly 2,000 tech companies cut a total of over 260,000 jobs by the end of last year.
Despite layoffs from Infineon and Intel, the broader chip industry remained stable. Nvidia, a leading player in the sector, saw its shares tick up in after-hours trading, highlighting its strong position to capitalize on the AI boom and underscoring Intel’s relative disadvantage.
So far this year, tech companies including TurboTax-parent Intuit, Duolingo, Spap, Intel, Unity Software, and BenchSci have laid off approximately 2,358 employees. According to Layoffs.FYI, a site that tracks tech layoffs, more than 384 companies have laid off 124,517 workers so far this year.
Infineon Engineer
