US semiconductor firm Marvell begins massive layoff in China

Almost five months after beginning job layoffs to reduce its operations in China, Marvell Technology Inc., a manufacturer of wireless, data processing, and storage chips, is laying off its entire research and development staff in the largest chip market in the world.

In order to ride through what the company describe as an industry slowdown, Marvell said it is cutting around 320 employees, or 4% of its global staff, according to a statement from Marvell on Wednesday.

“We are streamlining our organization to ensure that our workforce is positioned to take advantage of our most promising opportunities, both now and when we emerge from the current industry downcycle,” the Santa Clara, California-based company said in a statement.

According to a report on Wednesday by the Chinese semiconductor industry portal Ijiwei, which cited sources familiar with the situation, the majority of Marvell’s most recent job cuts will directly affect the company’s entire research and development operation in mainland China, while only about 5% of these layoffs will be conducted in the US.

In October of last year, several departments at Marvell’s offices in Shanghai and Chengdu, the provincial capital of southwest Sichuan, were either downsized or completely eliminated.

Marvell employed almost 1,000 workers in China at its peak before the layoffs. The third-largest research and development team for the corporation after its operations in the US and Israel was based in Shanghai, where some 800 of these employees were employed.

With escalating tensions between Beijing and Washington, US memory chip firm Micron Technology halted its DRAM design activities in Shanghai at the end of last year and asked 150 Chinese engineers to relocate to either the US or India.