Chip IP Company Imagination Lays Off 20%, Involving the Chinese Market
On November 14th, internal sources revealed the news of job cuts at Imagination. The Chinese market will also be affected by the layoffs, with the proportion of job cuts being consistent with the global scale.
Affected by global macroeconomic factors, UK GPU chip design technology company Imagination plans to lay off 20% of its workforce worldwide.
According to an internal document, the reason for Imagination’s layoffs is the challenges in the global business environment. The company executives revealed during a press conference held in Shanghai last week that up to 84% of Imagination’s employees are in research and development positions.
The company’s largest clients include Apple Inc. In 2020, Imagination signed an agreement with Apple to provide chip technology.
“Our cooperation with Apple is still ongoing, and they are still using our GPU technology. This is the current status.” said Liu Guojun, Vice President and General Manager of Imagination China, at last week’s press conference.
Apple has not commented on the news of Imagination’s layoffs.
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As one of the leading chip design companies globally, Imagination competes with Arm. Its revenue sources are also similar to Arm’s, mainly from “IP licensing + royalties”. Financial documents show that last year Imagination had a pre-tax profit of 17 million pounds and revenue of 120 million pounds.
Liu Guojun stated that besides Apple, Imagination has also been actively exploring opportunities in the Chinese market in recent years. They have been collaborating with companies in the Chinese chip industry to not only provide services for independent chip design by local enterprises but also to build a chip ecosystem. “We hope to form a common ecosystem with end-users and OEMs, and we will continue to make further investments in the Chinese market,” he said.
Imagination is owned by private equity firm Canyon Bridge, with Chinese enterprises as its shareholders.
