SANTA CLARA — Intel has decided to slash more than 1,000 jobs in California — more than 700 of which are in the Bay Area — as the longtime chipmaker embarks on a restructuring.

Layoffs began in the South Bay on July 15 and were slated to be completed by the end of the month, according to a WARN letter filed with the state’s labor agency.

“Intel now anticipates that the planned action will affect a combined total of approximately 736 employees” who work at, or report to, several sites in Santa Clara, James Warner, Intel’s director of corporate people movement, wrote in the WARN letter. “These actions are still expected to be permanent.”

Intel had previously notified the state Employment Development Department that it intended to eliminate 410 jobs in Santa Clara, according to a filing dated July 8. Those estimates have increased, a WARN notice dated July 11 shows.

New WARN notices state that Intel also will eliminate 344 jobs in Folsom, up from a prior estimate of 174.

“This is going to be difficult for Intel,” said Rob Enderle, a veteran analyst who tracks the technology industry. “They have to articulate what the game plan is. They are announcing these layoffs, but they have to provide the context for what the future will be.”Intel said it is attempting to become leaner, faster and more efficient through the job cuts. The company said it wants to empower its engineers to make decisions more quickly and create new technologies in fields such as artificial intelligence.

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan warned in April that the quest for efficiency would be accompanied by painful job losses. The semiconductor company had previously disclosed its intentions to cut 20% of its global workforce, which would equate to 21,000 workers worldwide.

“There is no way around the fact that these critical changes will reduce the size of our workforce,” Tan said in a company-wide memo. “We must balance our reductions with the need to retain and recruit key talent.”

Employee retention, however, could become a problem for Intel.

“It’s hard to maintain morale and it’s hard to retain employees when you are laying off employees,” Enderle said. “The good engineers want to get out before they are next. The tech job market is already tight, so people may want to try to leave before they are forced out. This just adds to the problems Intel is facing.”

Intel is not the only tech company that is eliminating jobs in the Bay Area.

Over the first five months of 2025, the region lost about 14,000 tech jobs, according to seasonally adjusted industry estimates that Beacon Economics derived from the EDD’s official monthly jobs report.

Most recently, Walmart announced plans that it would eliminate 381 jobs on Aug. 22 at a tech hub on West California Avenue near Sunnyvale’s Caltrain station.

LinkedIn made 270 job cuts on May 15, affecting workers in Mountain View, Sunnyvale and San Francisco. Of these, 159 were planned for Mountain View.

Renesas, a semiconductor company that had been in expansion mode, made 56 staffing reductions on May 12 that affected workers in San Jose and Milpitas.

Boston Scientific has scheduled 23 job cuts in Sunnyvale for Aug. 2.

“Intel really needs to lay out the strategy in a way that is compelling,” Enderle said. “We’ll see if they can make it compelling. They have a tough task ahead of them.”