Thinking Intel is in a totally different arena than SWD and Software companies. Where with FAANG and related companies they simply overhired. Intel is part of a duopoly, to make matters worse they made their money by taking their chipsets and shrinking them down as far as they could go no innovation in terms of chipset design. AMD their competitor was on the back foot since 2007 ish but had focused on designing many types of chipsets and more importantly continued to fund them. Now that AMD actually has a chipset that can compete and is smoking Intel, intel will have to start redesigning chipsets, something they haven't done in years, and with axing your R&D into other chipsets. Intel set itself up for a failure of this magnitude.

The data doesn't support the pandemic overhiring narrative. No FAANG company made a loss or anything near a loss + they are mostly letting go employees hired before the pandemic. Just look at your Linkedin feed for example, the number of, "axed after X years at X company" posts are staggering. In my humble opinion these neo layoffs are purely a cannibalistic play to appease aggressive demands by institutional investors for hyper - increased profit. It's like severing limbs to lose weight.