US chip giant Qualcomm cuts jobs in Shanghai amid macroeconomic headwinds: report
- US chip giant is cutting jobs in Shanghai but the lay-offs are not large-scale, according to China Business News report
- Qualcomm flagged potential job losses in its last quarterly earnings report, citing macroeconomic and demand uncertainty
Qualcomm will make job cuts at its Shanghai office as the US chip giant navigates ongoing technology tensions between the US and China and economic headwinds, according to a local media report.
Qualcomm, which has one of the biggest footprints in China of any US company, said on Thursday there will be lay-offs at its Shanghai office without giving a figure, according to a report by the China Business News, a local Shanghai newspaper.
Qualcomm did not respond to a request for comment by the South China Morning Post.
According to the China Business News report, Qualcomm refuted speculation that the job cuts would be “large-scale”, resulting in an “office closure” or a total “retreat from Shanghai”.
The China Business News report followed claims made on Chinese social media that the US company was laying off dozens of people from its research and development facility in Shanghai, a pre-eminent financial and tech centre on the mainland, and was offering generous redundancy packages to affected employees.
A Qualcomm employee in Shanghai, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, told the Post on Thursday that the lay-offs were already taking place, with some employees receiving compensation offers, but the scale of the job cuts was quite limited.