Semiconductor maker Micron announces 10% staff reduction, suspends bonuses
Semiconductor maker Micron announced Wednesday that it would reduce its headcount by about 10% in 2023, in the latest example of a technology industry slowdown affecting employment.
Shares of Micron fell more than 1% in extended trading.
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Idaho-based Micron has about 48,000 employees, according to a recent SEC filing. The company said it would hit its reduction target through voluntary departures as well as layoffs.
Micron also said it is suspending 2023 bonuses.
“On December 21, 2022, we announced a restructure plan in response to challenging industry conditions,” the company said in an SEC filing. “Under the restructure plan, we expect to reduce our headcount by approximately 10% over calendar year 2023, through a combination of voluntary attrition and personnel reductions.”
Micron said it expected a $30 million charge in the current quarter related to the restructuring, which will also include less investment into manufacturing capacity and cost-cutting programs.
The move comes as Micron reported fiscal first-quarter 2023 results where it missed analyst estimates for earnings and revenue, and forecast a larger loss per share than expected in the current quarter.
Here’s how Micron did versus Refinitiv consensus estimates for the quarter ending in December:
- Loss per share: $0.04, adjusted, versus $0.01 estimated
- Revenues: $4.09 billion versus $4.11 billion estimated
Micron said it expected a loss of 62 cents per share on revenue of $3.8 billion in the current quarter. Analysts had expected guidance of a loss of 30 cents per share on $3.75 billion in sales.
Micron is best known for supplying memory to computer makers, but it is facing an environment where PC sales have already started to slow or shrink, while server sales are expected to show little growth in 2023.
Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said in prepared remarks that there is too much memory supply and not enough demand, which has resulted in the company keeping more inventory and losing pricing power.
“In the last several months, we have seen a dramatic drop in demand,” Mehrotra said, according to the prepared remarks.
He said he expects the company’s profitability to “remain challenged” through the end of 2023 but that the firm expects revenue and free cash flow to recover later in 2023. Micron said it has suspended share repurchases.
Micron’s restructuring comes after other semiconductor companies have announced hiring freezes or layoffs. In October, Intel announced that it would lay off workers as part of a plan to cut $10 billion in spending. Nvidia announced a hiring slowdown over the summer, and Qualcomm announced its hiring freeze in November.
But it’s not just semiconductor companies adjusting after two pandemic-fueled years of growth and supply issues. Tech companies including Meta, Twitter, Snap, Stripe and Tesla have also cut staff as companies gird for a potential recession and higher interest rates.
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John Giannandrea.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Apple’s AI chief is stepping down, the company announced Monday in the most visible shake up yet to the iPhone maker’s artificial intelligence group since launching its Apple Intelligence suite in 2024.
John Giannandrea, who held the position since joining the company in 2018, will be replaced by Amar Subramanya, an AI researcher who most recently worked for Microsoft and was previously part of Google’s DeepMind AI unit, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Giannandrea was a senior vice president and reported to Apple CEO Tim Cook. He will continue to serve as an advisor until retiring next spring, Apple said.
The change comes as experts this year have said Apple has fallen behind its tech peers in artificial intelligence, a tech field that has been reinvigorated since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in 2022.
Apple Intelligence, which was intended to put Apple alongside AI leaders like OpenAI and Google, has not been well-reviewed by users and critics. Earlier this year, one of its most critical aspects, a significantly improved Siri assistant, was delayed until 2026, signaling development challenges.
Subramanya will serve as Apple’s vice president of AI, and will report to software chief Craig Federighi, the company said.
In a statement, Cook said Federighi has already been playing a key role in Apple’s AI efforts.
“In addition to growing his leadership team and AI responsibilities with Amar’s joining, Craig has been instrumental in driving our AI efforts, including overseeing our work to bring a more personalized Siri to users next year,” Cook said in a statement.
Subramanya will lead teams working on Apple’s foundation models, research and AI safety. Other teams previously under Giannandrea will move under COO Sabih Khan and services chief Eddy Cue, Apple said.
Although Apple shares are up 16% in 2025, they have lagged many other big tech companies as investors say the iPhone maker has fallen behind its peers that are investing billions into AI data centers, chips and frontier models.
Apple said in August that it was “significantly increasing” the amount it spends on AI, and Cook has said it’s a “profound” technology. Apple has struck a deal with leader OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into some of its products, like Siri.
But Apple is playing a different game than companies like Microsoft, Google, and Meta. It’s spending much less on infrastructure for the technology. Apple also prefers its AI to run on its devices, instead of communicating back to more powerful computers in the cloud.
Apple this year also saw Jony Ive, its legendary hardware designer who helped late co-founder Steve Jobs invent the iPhone, sell his startup io for $6.4 billion to OpenAI, with the intention of helping the AI lab release its own hardware.
Analysts say that Apple has built a loyalty moat among its customers since the iPhone launched in 2007, but AI-driven hardware is on its way, with Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman last month saying that they’ve already completed their first prototypes and could reveal them in two years or less.
WATCH: Apple will gain more AI functionality over time, says D.A. Davidson’s Gil Luria
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