As Intel has begun reducing billions in spending, the company still is celebrating its decades-old and vaunted R&D reputation. On Monday, the company named its 2024 Inventor of the Year, Gang Duan, an Intel innovator in the field of advanced packaging.
Ironically, the advanced packaging industry has complained it has not received enough attention from grants given out in the $39 billion US CHIPS Act, but Duan’s honor shows that Intel values achievements in advanced packaging, in addition to all the work Intel does in designing processors and other electronics. Advanced packaging is also at the center of Intel’s foundry initiative, but the future of its foundry work is still yet to be fully revealed as Intel undertakes a $10 billion cost reduction program that has included cutting 15,000 workers.
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Duan typifies the long-time employees that Intel hopes to keep close, even as it has laid off thousands of skilled workers. In some cases, Intel workers have said they could reapply in a year or more, part of a strategy to keep the pipeline of top talent flowing.
For his part, Duan has amassed nearly 500 patent applications globally over 16 years at Intel focused on better interconnects, embedding connector chips in substrate even pioneering glass substrates. He works in Chandler, Arizona, as a principal engineer and backend area manager in Intel’s Substrate Packaging Technology Development Group.
He takes the classic attitude engineers typify as problem solvers. “Innovators need to develop a great sense of loving problems. That’s the beginning of everything. Where there is a problem, there is an opportunity to innovate,” he said in a statement. “Some of our best ideas were actually developed from our failures.” He shares the Intel honor with co-inventors and collaborators. “It’s truly the spirit of collaboration that’s made this possible.”
What many in the industry worry about is whether a focus on awarding Intel’s innovators sidesteps Intel’s ongoing cost reduction process. Intel has previously announced R&D cuts for 2025 that are combined into a larger category for “operating expenses” that include R&D, marketing, general and administration. That larger category total is projected to be $17.5 billion in 2025, down from $20 billion in 2024, a $2.5 billion reduction.
Meanwhile, capital expenditures are expected to decline by $2 billion to $7 billion in 2025, reaching $20 billion to $23 billion, down from $25 billion to $27 billion ion 2024. On its latest earnings call, CEO Pat Gelsinger said the 15,000 layoffs are expected to be completed at the end of November.
However Intel expects to continue to promote its research innovations with its top talent, the top inventor award to Duan depicts some of the capabilities that are expected to drive Intel’s future foundry and related pursuits. Intel captured a short video with Duan speaking.