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Intel is axing scores of Internet of Things workers, despite the group bringing in over $700 million in revenue in Q1. The chipmaker is reportedly laying off 140 jobs related to IoT, 97 at its Californian headquarters in Santa Clara and 43 more in Ireland. The company is also discontinuing three IoT products this summer, despite the IoT market bringing in a hefty amount of money in the last year.
In total, Intel’s IoT group provided $721 million in revenue in the first quarter of the year, up nearly 11 per cent from the previous year. Yet, IoT is still far from making a real impact on Intel’s overall sales, with just 5 per cent of the company’s revenue coming from the IoT department.
“There have been some changes in our workforce that are driven by the needs and priorities of the business, which we consistently evaluate,” said an Intel Ireland spokeswoman. “Efforts are being made to mitigate the impact.”
With the decline of traditional lucrative markets, such as the PCs, Intel has been investing heavily over the last three years in areas that it believes will generate future profit. Moving its cash from egments where it has a dominant position like client computing and data center computing, Intel has been pouring in cash into sectors that have better growth prospects. IoT is one such area that Intel has been targeting, but with it only providing 5 per cent of the company’s overall revenue, the workers have paid the price.
With the rise of Rasperry Pi, Intel has also announced that it will be discontinuing similar products aimed at IoT developers. The company’s Galileo, Joule and Edison compute modules will consequently come to an abrupt end and will no longer be available from September.
The latest round of job cuts comes following Intel’s decision to do away with 15,000 workers worldwide in 2016.
