Top chip manufacturer announces layoffs despite Biden subsidies
Will Kessler
Daily Caller News Foundation
Top semiconductor manufacturer Qualcomm announced a new round of layoffs on Wednesday, even after the industry received huge subsidies from the Biden administration, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Qualcomm, a major American producer of semiconductors, announced a new round of layoffs after seeing a 25% decline in its mobile-phone chip business compared to the previous year, according to the WSJ. The semiconductor industry has received huge subsidies from the Biden administration through the CHIPS and Science Act, which was signed into law in August 2022 and included $52 billion in subsidies for domestic semiconductor manufacturers. (RELATED: China Implements Export Controls On Key Metals Used For Chips)
“We had previously communicated we would evaluate additional cost actions as the environment continues to evolve,” Qualcomm CFO Akash Palkiwala said in an earnings call following the announcement. “Until we see sustained signs of improving fundamentals, our operating framework does not assume an immediate recovery. Given our commitment to operating discipline, we will proactively implement additional cost actions in the first half of fiscal ’24. This will be incremental to the reductions we have successfully completed in fiscal ’23.”
The disappointing earnings are part of stagnating smartphone sales from recent quarters, with a 7.8% fall for the year in the second quarter, according to the WSJ. The company had 51,000 employees in Sept. 2022 and did not specify how many it plans to lay off, but did say that layoffs will be a large part of the planned cost-cutting measures.
Revenues for the third quarter of 2023 fell 23% as compared to last year, from around $10.9 billion in the third quarter of 2022 to approximately $8.5 billion in the third quarter of 2023, according to Qualcomm’s third quarter earnings report.
Qualcomm stock drops 9% as phone chip sales dive https://t.co/M8udugbRzc
— CNBC (@CNBC) August 3, 2023
The U.S. is in a trade war with China over the production of semiconductor technology, with both countries vying for an advantage in the technology due to its uses in computing and artificial intelligence development. In October 2022, the Biden administration imposed restrictions blacklisting multiple Chinese companies from purchasing semiconductors and the materials used to make them from U.S. companies.
Chip industry leaders Intel, Qualcomm and Nvidia quietly met with Biden administration officials in July to discuss possible restrictions on the chip industry related to China.
WND is now on Trump's Truth Social! Follow us @WNDNews
Ambassador Xie Feng of China said at the Aspen Security Forum in July that China will respond to any new restrictions with actions of its own.
Qualcomm did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
This story originally was published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
IMPORTANT NOTE: To their horror, America’s ruling elites failed to knock out Donald Trump during his four years as president via the fabricated Trump-Russia collusion scandal – conceived and funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign, as the Durham report proves – or through two circus-like impeachment trials. Later came “January 6,” a demonstration-turned-riot by Trump supporters who passionately believed, with good reason, that the recent election – and therefore their country – had just been stolen from them. Members of Congress now want to constitutionally bar Trump from again seeking public office for having instigated “an armed insurrection” (no protester was armed) against America.
Then in March, Trump was indicted in New York on 34 counts of falsifying business records, and in June, still more indictments were filed against Trump – 37 federal criminal charges related to his handling of classified documents. Honest legal experts not in league with the Biden administration openly classify these indictments as somewhere between frivolous and idiotic, not to mention grotesquely politically motivated.
The Deep State’s never-ending persecution of Donald Trump, as well as the incredible back story of the totalitarian agenda Trump’s persecutors are attempting to implement in America and why Trump represents a mortal threat to their nefarious designs – is the focus of the blockbuster July issue of WND’s critically acclaimed monthly Whistleblower magazine, titled “THE PERSECUTION OF DONALD TRUMP: Why the ruling elites loathe – and fear – the 45th president.”
WHISTLEBLOWER is available in both the popular print edition and a state-of-the-art digital version, either single issues or discounted annual subscriptions.
SUPPORT TRUTHFUL JOURNALISM. MAKE A DONATION TO THE NONPROFIT WND NEWS CENTER. THANK YOU!
The post Top chip manufacturer announces layoffs despite Biden subsidies appeared first on WND.