One senior supervisor, who didn’t wish to be named as he isn’t approved to talk publicly about inside issues, stated his chat threads lit up. “Jensen likes us!” was the overwhelming response, he remembers. Many workers appeared to consider that Nvidia’s money infusion and curiosity in partnering with Intel on chips, which adopted investments from the federal authorities and SoftBank, would assist save the chipmaker.
Volumes have been written in regards to the strategic errors that noticed Intel go from dominating the microprocessor market within the ’90s to turning into an organization in want of bailing out at the moment. Most notably, Intel missed the cell phone revolution within the early 2000s, when then-CEO Paul Otellini turned down Apple’s request to have Intel construct chips for the primary iPhone. The corporate additionally missed the AI increase, having stopped making the chips that hyperscalers and AI giants like Nvidia badly want seven years in the past, and ceding that market to Taiwan’s TSMC and Korea’s Samsung. (Now, America’s reliance on these two makers is seen as a severe nationwide safety risk.)
However whereas Intel’s strategic missteps have been pored over, much less evaluation has been achieved on the adjustments in company tradition that accompanied and arguably hastened Intel’s decline. Although it may be troublesome to tug aside the place poor enterprise choices finish and cultural erosion begins, the individuals who would possibly know finest—Intel’s previous and present workers—have theories.
One factor is for certain. The corporate that was as soon as recognized for attracting the very best and brightest, largely misplaced that capability. “You certainly have the true believers who are hanging on, but the change in direction, the layoffs, the comp not being as good as it should be—it’s all piling up,” stated one former senior supervisor about what he knew of the temper at Intel in August. Morale, stated one other former longtime worker in undertaking administration, is “in the toilet.” Intel’s famed tradition, over the previous few years, had deteriorated right into a “heads-down, push-through situation,” he added. “That spark in people’s eyes, the desire to do this work, was not there.”
How Intel initially discovered that spark—then misplaced it—is a worthy lesson for any high-flying firm about find out how to hold an organization tradition alive.
The Grovian Period
Over the previous 10 years, Intel has shed tens of hundreds of jobs in a number of waves of restructuring, however essentially the most drastic of these cuts occurred in 2024 and 2025. First, in 2024, CEO Pat Gelsinger introduced a discount of 15,000 roles, after the corporate’s complete headcount had grown to just about 125,000. Now, Tan, who took the CEO workplace in March, has stated one other 25,000 roles would go and that he desires Intel to emulate Nvidia’s lean, fast-moving tradition.
However there was a time when velocity and measurement weren’t incompatible for the tech big.
Intel was cofounded in 1968 by two legends of the silicon business, Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce, and an investor named Arthur Rock.
Moore, who died in 2023, famously gave the world Moore’s legislation: the concept that the variety of transistors that might be placed on a chip doubles about each two years, enabling common waves of superior technological developments. However the chief whose imprint set the DNA for Intel’s company tradition, and that of early Silicon Valley writ massive, was Andy Grove, one of many firm’s first workers, who turned Intel’s third CEO in 1987 and oversaw beautiful progress on the firm. “He had this amazing stage presence,” stated a former 30-year worker, an engineer who had additionally labored in operations administration. “Just even being around him, he had so much energy and passion.”
Impressed by Moore’s legislation, Grove insisted that Intel wanted to work ceaselessly to disrupt itself—“Only the paranoid survive” was certainly one of his well-known dictums—and Grove, who was born in Hungary to a Jewish household in 1936, was a survivor himself. He had hid his Jewish id through the German occupation of Budapest and lived below the Soviet regime earlier than escaping to the West. The revered chief and engineering genius, who died in 2016, questioned company norms about top-down authority and inspired a tradition the place workers have been anticipated to problem each other productively, a customized he referred to as “constructive confrontation.”
A believer in flat buildings and the spirit of experimentation, Grove drove workers exhausting, however he additionally set the situations for innovation, stated the previous longtime worker, and Grove was recognized for having an idealistic streak. “Back in the old days,” the previous worker stated, “it was like, ‘Oh, hey, I’m creating this great thing. What do you think about it?’ ” The everyday response, he recalled, can be, “ ‘Hey, that looks pretty cool. Let’s see what you can do with it. Let’s give you some money and more tools.’ ”
And when employees needed to grind to hit a manufacturing goal, their efforts have been rewarded, typically with monetary incentives, but additionally with personalised awards like silicon wafers signed by Grove. In a former period, even years after Grove stepped down, one program supplied free tickets to baseball video games or museums for your self and your loved ones. The veteran worker remembers events to rejoice accomplishments, and with the ability to take time without work work between large initiatives “to give time back to your family,” after weeks or months of absence. Intel additionally ran a sabbatical program that was the envy of company drones in every single place: Each 4 years, employees may take 4 consecutive weeks of paid depart (along with trip allowances) or they might take eight weeks after seven years.
With its emphasis on competitiveness and staying on the sting of technological development, plus the perks, Intel was the place the place graduates of prime pc science colleges, comparable to Caltech, dreamed of touchdown a gig. It was an organization the place, a number of workers instructed me, individuals anticipated to spend their complete careers.
“Saying you worked at Intel was a feather in your cap,” stated the previous undertaking supervisor, recalling Intel’s golden period within the Nineteen Nineties and the flip of this century. “The bunny suit ads and ‘Intel Inside’ campaign were everywhere. It felt great to work there. People were motivated and proud.”
However, former workers stated, the vibe started to vary way back to 15 years in the past.
A cultural drift
Grove stepped down as CEO in 1998 (however remained concerned as chair till 2005), and was adopted by Craig Barrett, who, workers who spoke to Fortune stated, largely saved Grove’s imaginative and prescient and emphasis on technological management intact. (Barrett continues to be targeted on saving Intel.) However the CEO who adopted Barrett, the late Otellini, who was the corporate’s first non-engineer CEO, started to make adjustments that many say the corporate by no means recovered from. He made that fateful determination to not work with Steve Jobs at Apple; he additionally began the corporate on a path that noticed its monetary efficiency take precedence over Grove’s mission to be on the reducing fringe of all types of know-how.
Intel had all the time championed its democratic methods, the place workers have been anticipated to succeed in out on to senior management with concepts, and their enter was valued, stated ex-employees. That environment slowly shifted over time, starting within the 2000s. “Everyone was telling [Otellini], ‘This is something big we need to do,’ ” the previous undertaking supervisor stated of cellular computing. “And he was just not having it.”
Experimentation misplaced its shine. Awards have been minimized. The veteran worker factors to Bob Swan, who was CEO from 2019 to 2021, as each an efficient chief with nice imaginative and prescient, but additionally a penny-pincher who modified Intel by wiping away even small perks: “By the time I left, if there was even a thank-you gift card, which was really hard to get approved, it would be anywhere from $25 to $100.”
Workers additionally steadily noticed the downtime that they had between initiatives evaporate, resulting in burnout and decreased morale. Increasingly more, stated one former worker, Intel’s employees went from being valued and celebrated contributors to the corporate’s objectives—a part of a household, a number of stated—to cogs in a machine designed to maximise revenue. That felt most true over the past 12 months, stated a former public relations supervisor.
“Your employees are the gas in the car, the talent you have, the people you trust to get things done. They should be considered. They should be part of the strategy,” that particular person stated. “People felt that employees were starting to be treated like assets that you could sell off or just offload. It discounts your contribution.”
Former workers stated that perceived angle coloured the corporate’s strategy to layoffs, which got titles, stated one ex-worker, comparable to, “Corporate People Movement.” (Intel declined to verify or remark.) “They always had fun names for them, but it was always just people were laid off,” the undertaking administration specialist stated. It’s not unusual for large firms to call applications that contain restructuring and layoffs, however that was precisely the purpose, workers stated. Intel had by no means been like different large firms.
Not solely that, however Intel mishandled its layoffs, no less than at first, with damaging results. One worker recalled layoffs greater than 10 years in the past, by which the corporate marched individuals out the door on the day they discovered that they had misplaced their job, leaving gaps in information and sowing confusion. Ultimately, the corporate needed to revert to giving workers discover.
Folks discovered in regards to the common layoffs and whether or not their groups can be impacted on the sadly named Enterprise Unit Conferences, or BUMs, the undertaking supervisor stated. The environment was full of the dreaded query, Am I subsequent? The ever-present worry of being laid off over the previous few years “took your head out of the game,” stated one other.
A purpose for hope
In 2021, the temper at Intel momentarily shifted for the higher, a number of workers instructed Fortune. That 12 months, the board employed Pat Gelsinger, an engineer who had spent 30 years at Intel earlier than leaving it for different firms and ultimately working VMware.
To many, Gelsinger’s return signaled that the corporate was reviving the spirit of Andy Grove’s Intel. Gelsinger spent billions, and actually wager the corporate on its superior 18A manufacturing course of structure, workers defined. He laid the groundwork to construct new foundries, however stated Intel wouldn’t see the fruits of those investments for years. “We’re going to go all in, and we are going to make it. I really liked that mentality,” stated the ex-longtime worker.
Gelsinger impressed workers—whilst he requested them to take a pay reduce, and he scaled again the sabbatical profit—whereas additionally holding them knowledgeable of his imaginative and prescient. As one former company chief recalled, the chief government was recognized for addressing workers weekly and interesting with their questions. The place one former CEO was greatly surprised by workers’ confrontational tradition, and even left the stage throughout a city corridor out of frustration, Gelsinger was at residence at Intel. However the board—which included Tan—reportedly misplaced persistence together with his spending, and he was dismissed final December, changed by interim co-CEOs till Tan took management a number of months later. “For most of us, when [Gelsinger] was forced out, it was really hard on morale, like, we just couldn’t believe it. We thought that this was the guy that could potentially save the company,” stated the previous 30-year worker.
In contrast, Tan was much less acquainted to workers, although well-connected to individuals like Nvidia’s Huang, AMD CEO Lisa Su, and others within the semiconductor world. Tan holds a grasp’s in nuclear engineering, however he has lengthy labored as an investor and enterprise chief, and is the previous CEO of Cadence Design Programs. A board member for 2 years, Tan was aware of Intel’s complexity and the continued debate over whether or not to separate the corporate up, spinning off the foundries as a separate enterprise.
In Tan’s very first assembly with workers, a number of individuals stated, rank-and-file staffers weren’t shy about pushing for particulars round Gelsinger’s departure and expressing “salty” sentiments about Tan having stop the board in 2024, ostensibly for private causes, solely to boomerang again, this time as CEO. Belief within the new chief is low for some. “Lip-Bu Tan did not focus on internal stakeholders, only investors and external stakeholders,” the previous company worker stated. Tan was additionally reportedly referred to as out by some workers on an inside chat app for carrying a pullover branded with the emblem of his former firm, Cadence, throughout that first look.
In a press release, an Intel spokesperson stated, “Lip-Bu is driving a cultural transformation that is critical to Intel’s future growth. 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, reignite innovation and strengthen our execution.”
In April, Tan additionally stated on an earnings name, “Organizational complexity and bureaucracy have been suffocating the innovation and agility we need to win. It takes too long for decisions to get made. New ideas and the people who generate them have not been given the room or resources to incubate and grow. And unnecessary silos have led to bad execution. I’m here to fix this.”
One of many greatest shock occasions since Tan took workplace occurred in August, when the CEO agreed to have the U.S. authorities take a ten% stake within the firm for $8.9 billion in funding that had already been promised to the corporate in federal grants. That growth appeared inevitable and had lengthy been mentioned at Intel, one worker stated. However it didn’t sit nicely with everybody. “It’s insane that the U.S. government would be owning a stake in an independent company,” stated the worker in undertaking administration, simply days after that deal went public. “It just seems gross, especially for people who don’t necessarily support Trump. They feel like they are now being pulled into his orbit closer than they want to be.”
“Frankly, some of the employees just don’t want to be involved with Trump in any way, shape, or form, just because it’s him,” stated one other former chief, who additionally described Intel as somewhat extra conservative than another tech firms, particularly as a result of it’s unfold out throughout varied geographies and features a manufacturing enterprise. “Our past founders have warned current leaders in the company very publicly that taking government money comes with a lot of strings attached.”
Now, with unconfirmed reviews circulating that Intel is looking for investments from Apple and rival TSMC, his give attention to exterior gamers appears comprehensible. Ex-employees level out that Tan has certainly been executing on the plans he described when he took over. One former company worker thinks that Intel nonetheless must develop the mindset to each compete and work collaboratively with peer firms in at the moment’s tech ecosystem. For years, Intel has been principally insular, and the prevailing angle was that to be the very best firm, it wanted to depend on itself. However that was a type of hubris. “It was part of what brought Intel into that dominance for several years,” stated the ex-employee. “At the same time, it brought all the challenges that we have been seeing over the last few years.” Now that Intel has misplaced its standing as the highest vacation spot for the brightest minds in engineering, some former employees assume recruiting for Intel’s subsequent act might be troublesome. “Most people want to be part of a growth story, not a turnaround story,” stated the previous senior supervisor, “unless the turnaround has legs.” However ought to the corporate have to employees up once more, it could additionally possible discover a lot goodwill amongst its laid-off workers.
Due to the years by which Intel cultivated a robust and distinctive tradition, ex-employees stated, former Intel workers are networking frequently, sharing job openings, and even on the point of launch their very own companies, whereas rooting for his or her previous employer. Requested if he would return, the veteran worker, who stated he’s nonetheless adjusting to his new post-Intel id, replied, “In a heartbeat.”
