Intel Cost-Cutting Includes Altera Spin-Out, Retreat From German Plant

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger and key executives are expected to present a plan later this month to the company’s board of directors to cut unnecessary businesses and revamp capital spending, according to a source familiar with the matter, as they try to revive the once-dominant chipmaker's fortunes, Max A. Cherney and Milana Vinn reported for Reuters.

The plan will include ideas on how to reduce overall costs by selling businesses, including its programmable chip unit Altera. I Image: Intel

The plan will include ideas on how to reduce overall costs by selling businesses, including its programmable chip unit Altera, that Intel can no longer afford to fund from the company’s once-sizeable profit.

Gelsinger and other high-ranking executives at Intel are expected to present the plan at a mid-September board meeting, the same source said.

The proposal does not yet include plans to split Intel and sell off its contract manufacturing operation, or foundry, to a buyer such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), according to the source and another person familiar with the matter.

The presentation, including the plans for its manufacturing operations, has not yet been finalized and could change before the meeting.

Intel has already separated its foundry business from its design business and has been reporting its financial results separately since the first calendar quarter of this year.

The company has erected a wall between the design and manufacturing businesses to ensure that potential customers of the design division would have no access to technology secrets of customers using Intel’s factories, known as fabs, to manufacture their chips.