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    Are You Applying for Tech Jobs or Internships? We Want to Hear About It.

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    Layoffs and hiring freezes at companies like Amazon and Meta are changing the job market for recent grads and college students. Tell us about your experiences.November was a bleak month for tech workers. Meta, Amazon, Lyft, Stripe and Twitter laid off thousands of employees. Microsoft and Google announced hiring slowdowns.The cutbacks and hiring freezes affected not only veteran employees. Some tech companies laid off recent college graduates or rescinded their job offers. Some firms are also cutting their summer internship programs for college students next year.The industry slowdown is sending shock waves through a generation of computer science and data science students who spent years preparing themselves for careers at the largest tech companies. Many recent grads and college seniors are now seeking tech jobs outside the tech industry, in industries like retail, banking and finance.I’m a technology reporter at The New York Times who investigates the societal impacts of tech innovations and tech company business practices. And I am reporting a story about the implications of the industry jobs slowdown for people in the early stages of their tech careers.If you are a college student or recent grad applying for tech internships or jobs, I’d like to hear from you.We may use your contact information to follow up with you. If we publish your submission, we will not include your name without first contacting you and obtaining your permission.Tell us about your experiences applying for tech jobs and internships More

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    Tech’s Talent Wars Have Come Back to Bite It

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    Hiring the best, the brightest and the highest number of employees was a badge of honor at tech companies. Not anymore as layoffs surge.When Stripe, a payments start-up valued at $74 billion, laid off more than 1,000 employees this month, its co-founders blamed themselves. “We overhired for the world we’re in,” they wrote. “We were much too optimistic.”After Elon Musk, Twitter’s new owner, slashed the company’s staffing in half last week, Jack Dorsey, a founder and former chief executive of the social media service, claimed responsibility. “I grew the company size too quickly,” he wrote on Twitter.And on Wednesday, when Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, shed 11,000 people, or about 13 percent of its work force, Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive, blamed overzealous expansion. “I made the decision to significantly increase our investments,” he wrote in a letter to employees. “Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected.”The chorus of conceding by tech executives that they hired too many people is ricocheting across Silicon Valley as the industry rushes to make cuts, blaming a worsening economy.But at least part of the surge in layoffs was self-inflicted. When the companies enjoyed soaring profits and a belief that the pandemic-fueled boom times would keep going, they aggressively expanded by hoarding the most fought-over and expensive resource in the software business: talent.Silicon Valley tech companies have long seen hiring as more than just filling openings. The industry’s fierce talent wars showed that companies like Google and Meta were gaining the best and brightest. Ballooning staffs and a long reign atop lists of the most-desired jobs for college graduates were emblems of growth, deep pockets and prestige. And to employees, the work became something larger — it was an identity.The Austin, Texas, campus of Google, a veteran of the tech industry’s hiring wars.Brandon Thibodeaux for The New York TimesThis mentality became ingrained at the largest tech companies, which offer numerous perks on lavish corporate campuses that rival universities. It was echoed by smaller start-ups, which dangle a chance at life-changing wealth in the form of stock options.Now these practices are giving the tech industry indigestion.“When times are flush, you get excesses, and excesses lead to overhiring and optimism,” said Josh Wolfe, an investor at Lux Capital. “For the past 10 years, the abundance of cash led to an abundance of hiring.”More than 100,000 tech workers have lost their jobs this year, according to Layoffs.fyi, a site that tracks layoffs. The cuts range from well-known publicly traded companies like Meta, Salesforce, Booking.com and Lyft to highly valued private start-ups such as the Gopuff delivery service and the Chime and Brex financial platforms.More on Big TechMeta Layoffs: The parent of Facebook said it was laying off more than 11,000 people, or about 13 percent of its work force, in what amounted to the company’s most significant job cuts.Seeking Alternatives: Since Elon Musk bought Twitter, some of its users have sought out other social media platforms. Here is a closer look at Mastodon, one of the most popular alternatives.An Empire in Danger: U.S. lawmakers’ objections to an obscure Chinese semiconductor company and tough Covid-19 restrictions are hurting Apple’s ability to make new iPhones in China.Big Tech’s Slowdown: Amid inflation and rising interest rates, Silicon Valley’s most powerful companies are signaling that tough days may be ahead. Some have already announced hiring freezes and job cuts.Many of the job losses have taken place in tech’s most experimental areas. Astra, a rocket company, cut 16 percent of its staff this week after tripling its head count last year. In the cryptocurrency industry, which has suffered a meltdown this year, high-value companies including Crypto.com, Blockchain.com, OpenSea and Dapper Labs have cut hundreds of workers in recent months.Tech leaders were too slow to react to signs of an economic slowdown that emerged this spring, after many of the companies had already been on hiring sprees for several years, tech analysts said.Meta, whose valuation soared past $1 trillion, doubled its staff to 87,314 people over the past three years. Robinhood, the stock trading app, expanded its work force nearly sixfold in 2020 and 2021.“They’ve charged ahead with these plans that are no longer based on reality,” said Caitlyn Metteer, director of recruiting at Lever, a provider of recruiting software.For many, it’s a moment of shock. “Are we in a bubble” panics in the tech industry over the last decade have always been short-lived, followed by a rapid return to even frothier good times. Even those who predicted that pandemic behaviors enabled by the likes of Zoom, Peloton, Netflix and Shopify would ebb now say they underestimated the extent.Many believe this downturn will last longer because of the macroeconomic factors that created it. For the past decade, low interest rates pushed investors into riskier assets that offered higher returns. Those investors valued fast growth over profits and rewarded companies that took big risks.Jack Dorsey wrote on Twitter, which he helped start, that he had expanded the company too quickly.Marco Bello/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesIn recent years, tech companies responded to the flood of cash from investors and a rapidly growing business by pouring money into expansion via sales and marketing, hiring, acquisitions and experimental projects. The excess capital encouraged companies to staff up, adding fuel to the war for talent.“The pressure is to just spend the money quick enough so you can grow fast enough to justify the kinds of investments V.C.s want to make,” said Eric Rachlin, an entrepreneur who co-founded Body Labs, an artificial intelligence software company that Amazon bought.Expanding head count was also a way for managers to advance their careers. “Getting more people on the team is easier than telling everyone to just work super hard,” Mr. Rachlin said.That led the tech industry to gain a reputation for corporate bloat. Rumors often circulated of highly compensated workers who clocked just a few hours of work a day or juggled multiple remote jobs at once, alongside elaborate office perks like free laundry, massages and renowned cafeteria chefs. This spring, Meta scaled back its perks, including laundry service.In the past, tech workers could quickly change jobs or land on their feet if they were cut because of the plethora of open positions, but “I don’t think we know yet if everyone in this wave of layoffs will be able to do that,” Mr. Rachlin said.Some people see a chance to help those entering a difficult job market for the first time. Stephen Courson recently left a career in sales and strategy at Gartner, the research and consulting firm, and Salesforce to create financial content. He initially planned to focus on time management, but after many of his friends went through painful layoffs he began working on a course that helps people prepare for job interviews. It’s a skill that many of today’s job hunters never had to hone in flush times.“This isn’t going to get better quickly,” he said.Amid the drumbeat of layoff announcements, investors see an opportunity. They are quick to point out that well-known successes of the last decade — companies like Airbnb, Uber, Dropbox — were created in the aftermath of the Great Recession.This week, Day One Ventures, a venture capital firm, announced Funded Not Fired, a program that aims to invest $100,000 into 20 new start-ups where at least one founder was laid off from a tech company. Within 24 hours, hundreds of people had applied, said Masha Bucher, founder of the firm.“Some of the people are saying, ‘This is a sign I’ve been waiting for,’” she said. “It really gives people hope.”In the meantime, there may be more layoff announcements — delivered through the now standard form of a letter from the chief executive posted to a company blog.These letters have taken on a familiar format. The bosses explain the grim economic outlook, citing inflation, “energy shocks,” interest rates, “one of the most challenging real estate markets in 40 years” or “probable recession.” They take the blame for growing too fast. They offer up support to those affected — severance, visa help, health care, career guidance. They express sadness and thank everyone.And they reaffirm the company’s mission. More

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    Meta Is Said to Plan Significant Job Cuts This Week

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    Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive, said last month that many “teams will stay flat or shrink over the next year” as his company faces economic challenges.SAN FRANCISCO — Meta plans to lay off employees this week, three people with knowledge of the situation said, adding that the job cuts were set to be the most significant at the company since it was founded in 2004.It was unclear how many people would be cut and in which departments, said the people, who declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The layoffs were expected by the end of the week. Meta had 87,314 employees at the end of September, up 28 percent from a year ago.Meta has been struggling financially for months and has been increasingly clamping down on costs. The Silicon Valley company, which owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, has spent billions of dollars on the emerging technology of the metaverse, an immersive online world, just as the global economy has slowed and inflation has soared.At the same time, digital advertising — which forms the bulk of Meta’s revenue — has weakened as advertisers have pulled back, affecting many social media companies. Meta’s business has also been hurt by privacy changes that Apple enacted, which have hampered the ability of many apps to target mobile ads to users.Last month, Meta posted a 50 percent slide in quarterly profits and its second straight sales decline. The company said at the time that it would be “making significant changes across the board to operate more efficiently,” including by shrinking some teams and by hiring only in its areas of highest priority.More on Big TechMusk’s Twitter Takeover: Elon Musk has moved quickly to overhaul Twitter since he completed his $44 billion buyout of the company. But can he make the math work?Big Tech’s Slowdown: Amid stubborn inflation and rising interest rates, Google, Meta, Microsoft and other tech companies are signaling that tough days may be ahead. Some have already announced hiring freezes and job cuts.App Store Battle: Spotify wants to get into the audiobooks business, but Apple has rejected its new app three times. The standoff is the latest in a series of confrontations between the companies.Inside Meta’s Struggles: After a rocky year, employees at Meta are expressing skepticism, confusion and frustration over Mark Zuckerberg’s vision for the metaverse.Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive, had added that most “teams will stay flat or shrink over the next year.” He said the company would “end 2023 as either roughly the same size, or even a slightly smaller organization than we are today.”The Wall Street Journal earlier reported Meta’s plans for layoffs this week.Mr. Zuckerberg has been signaling tougher times ahead for months. In July, he told employees that the company was facing one of the “worst downturns that we’ve seen in recent history” and that workers should prepare to do more work with fewer resources. Their performances would also be graded more intensely than previously, he said.“I think some of you might decide that this place isn’t for you, and that self-selection is OK with me,” Mr. Zuckerberg told employees in a call at the time. “Realistically, there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldn’t be here.”Meta joins other tech companies that have been laying off employees as economic conditions have grown more challenging. Tech companies boomed during the coronavirus pandemic but many of the largest firms reported financial results in recent weeks that showed they were feeling the impact of global economic jitters.On Friday, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and the new owner of Twitter, laid off half of the company’s staff. Last week, Lyft also said it would cut 13 percent of its employees, or about 650 of its 5,000 workers. Stripe, a payment processing platform, said it would cut 14 percent of its employees, roughly 1,100 jobs. Snap, Robinhood and Coinbase are among other companies that have announced job cuts this year.Other tech companies are freezing their hiring. Last week, Amazon said it had decided to pause incremental corporate hiring because the economy was “in an uncertain place.” The move added to a freeze from last month, when the e-commerce giant halted corporate and technology hiring in its retail business for the rest of the year. More

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    Elon Musk Begins Layoffs at Twitter

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    The social media company’s 7,500 employees have been bracing for job cuts since Mr. Musk took it over last week.SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk will begin laying off Twitter employees on Friday, culling the social media company’s 7,500-person work force a little over a week after completing his blockbuster buyout.Twitter employees were notified in a company-wide email that the layoffs were set to begin, according to a copy of the message seen by The New York Times. About half the company’s workers appeared set to lose their jobs, according to internal messages and an investor, though the final count may take time to become clear. The email instructed Twitter employees to go home and not return to the offices on Friday as the cuts proceeded. Mr. Musk completed his $44 billion purchase of Twitter on Oct. 27 and immediately fired its chief executive and other top managers. More executives have since resigned or were let go, while managers were asked to draw up lists of high- and low-performing employees, likely with an eye toward job cuts.Mr. Musk, the world’s richest man, faces pressure to make Twitter work financially. The deal was the largest leveraged buyout of a technology company in history. The billionaire also loaded about $13 billion in debt on Twitter for the acquisition and is on the hook to pay about $1 billion a year in interest payments. But Twitter has often lost money, and its cash flow is not robust. Mr. Musk may benefit from cutting costs so the company is less expensive to operate.Twitter’s layoffs are unlikely to be the largest in the tech industry by total number. The computer manufacturer HP cut 24,600 of its employees, about 7.5 percent, in 2008. It later cut tens of thousands more, reaching about 30 percent of its work force.Elon Musk’s Acquisition of TwitterCard 1 of 8A blockbuster deal. More

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    Amazon Earnings: Return to Profitability But Slow Growth Signaled Ahead

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    The e-commerce giant, which also turned a profit in its latest quarter, indicated sales in the holiday period might rise at their lowest level since 2001.For much of this year, Amazon’s growth slowed and losses mounted as it faced high costs and changes in people’s shopping habits with the ebbing of the coronavirus pandemic.On Thursday, the e-commerce giant signaled that its business was rebounding. But it also cautioned that growth would be weak, possibly falling to its lowest level since 2001.Amazon, which is headquartered in Seattle, posted $127.1 billion in sales for the third quarter, up 15 percent from a year earlier, showing that high inflation has not pummeled consumer spending. It also returned to profitability, making $2.9 billion after two quarters of losses.At the same time, Amazon projected that sales might slow to as low as 2 percent in the current quarter, which includes the vital holiday shopping season. Those estimates, which fell far short of Wall Street’s expectations, include a forecast that the strong U.S. dollar will continue to depress international sales.The results come amid a rocky patch for tech giants. Microsoft, Meta and others have indicated in their earnings this week that tough days may be ahead. On Thursday, a day after Meta revealed that its profits and sales fell in the most recent quarter, the company’s stock plunged more than 24 percent, to its lowest level in at least five years. Shares of Microsoft and Alphabet, the parent of Google, also have declined this week.More on Big TechBig Tech’s Slowdown: Amid stubborn inflation and rising interest rates, Google, Meta, Microsoft and other Silicon Valley giants are signaling that tough days may be ahead.App Store Battle: Spotify wants to get into the audiobooks business, but Apple has rejected its new app three times. The standoff is the latest in a series of confrontations between the companies.Inside Meta’s Struggles: After a rocky year, employees at Meta are expressing skepticism, confusion and frustration over Mark Zuckerberg’s vision for the metaverse.A Deal for Twitter?: In a surprise move, Elon Musk has offered to acquire Twitter at his original price of $44 billion, which could bring to an end the acrimonious legal fight between the billionaire and the company.“We are seeing signs all around that people’s budgets are tight, inflation is still high, energy costs are an additional layer,” Brian Olsavsky, Amazon’s finance chief, said on a call with reporters. “We are preparing for what could be a slower growth period.”He added that demand was particularly weakening in Europe, where inflation and rising fuel costs from the war in Ukraine have affected consumers.Amazon’s stock dropped more than 19 percent in after-hours trading.Prices are rising, but the volume of items selling is falling, said Guru Hariharan, whose company, CommerceIQ, advises large consumer brands that sell products on Amazon. “That is a very concerning trend,” he said.After two years of breakneck expansion, Amazon has spent much of this year putting on the brakes. Andy Jassy, who took over as chief executive last year, has moved to swiftly cut costs after the company overbuilt in anticipation of an extended pandemic-fueled boom in e-commerce. Amazon has curtailed plans to open warehouses and worked to improve the efficiency of its fulfillment operations, and it imposed a hiring freeze for corporate and technology roles for its retail division.In the third quarter, Amazon benefited from its annual two-day Prime Day sale in July. In the previous year, Prime Day had been held earlier than July. The company called this year’s event its “biggest ever,” and it generated about $6.8 billion in revenue — about $5 billion more than a typical two days — according to estimates from the investment bank Cowen.Growth in Amazon’s cloud computing division was the slowest on record, increasing 27 percent to $20.5 billion. Amazon Web Services accounted for 16 percent of the company’s total sales but was the only division that produced an operating profit. Mr. Olsavsky said growth slowed in the late summer, as Amazon saw a “lot of customers cutting their bills, which we are glad to help with.”Its international operations, dragged down by the strong dollar, generated $2.5 billion in operating losses.The company employed 1.5 million people by the end of the third quarter, almost 100,000 fewer than at the start of the year.Mr. Olsavsky said Amazon generated more than $1 billion in productivity savings, about half a billion less than executives had hoped. The cost to ship products grew slower than the number of units it sold. But the depressed sales growth makes it harder to operate at optimal efficiency, Mr. Olsavsky said, because the company can best utilize its fulfillment and delivery infrastructure when it has more orders.Amazon’s lucrative advertising business, which Morgan Stanley estimates is worth about $185 billion, grew 25 percent to $9.5 billion, though there was a slowdown over the quarter as advertisers pulled back. The company’s subscription business, primarily Prime membership, grew 9 percent to $8.9 billion.Mr. Olsavsky said overall operating profit was reduced by high costs to market two major video offerings for Prime members — Thursday night football games with the National Football League, and its new “Lord of the Rings” series.In addition to the volatile economic environment, the value of Amazon’s investment in Rivian Automotive, an electric truck maker that has struggled to meet production goals, has added fluctuations to Amazon’s profits this year. That valuation rose $1.1 billion, contributing to Amazon’s profits in the latest quarter. More

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    Chip Makers, Once in High Demand, Confront Sudden Challenges

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    Demand for semiconductors was off the charts last year. But a sharp slowdown coupled with new U.S. restrictions against China have created obstacles.A few months ago, makers of computer chips seemed on top of the world.Customers could not get enough of the small slices of silicon, which act as the brains of computers and are needed in just about every device with an on-off switch. Demand was so strong — and U.S. dependence on a foreign manufacturer so worrying — that Democrats and Republicans agreed in July on a $52 billion subsidy package that included grants to build new chip factories in America.U.S. chip makers such as Intel, Micron Technology, Texas Instruments and GlobalFoundries pledged huge expansions in domestic manufacturing, betting on a growing need for their products and the prospects of federal subsidies.But lately, supplies of some semiconductors are piling up, which could spell good news for consumers but not for industry executives. Their bold investment plans are running into a sudden and unexpected slowdown in consumer demand for electronic gadgets, new U.S. restrictions on sales to customers in China, rising inflation and the unusual prospect of a simultaneous shortage of some chips and glut of others.That has left chip makers, which had been looking ahead to immense demand and opportunity, suddenly grappling with immense challenges. Many of the companies now face complex questions about whether and when to boost production, amid uncertainty about how long the current sales slowdown may last.“Six months ago, I would have said we were in this hypergrowth phase,” Rene Haas, chief executive of Arm, the British company whose chip technology powers billions of smartphones, said of the broader industry. Now, he said, “we’re in a pause.”For many consumers, products that were scarce because of a chips shortage may start becoming more available, though not immediately. Automakers, which have struggled to make enough cars with the lack of chips and other components, said they were getting more but still face some problems. Prices of smartphones and computers could also fall as chip supplies grow and prices plummet for two types of memory chips they use.But for now, not everyone is able to get all the chips they need, and prices remain high for many kinds of semiconductors. “We are still way above prepandemic pricing,” said Frank Cavallaro, chief executive of A2 Global Electronics and Solutions, a chip distributor.Fears of a slump, which have clobbered semiconductor stocks this year, are evident in recent earnings announcements from chip makers. South Korea’s SK Hynix on Wednesday reported a 20 percent drop in revenue and said its business of memory chips “is facing an unprecedented deterioration in market conditions.” Intel provided more evidence of a downturn in its third-quarter results on Thursday, including a 20 percent drop in revenue and a $664 million charge to cover cost-cutting measures expected to include job cuts.The Biden administration delivered its own blow this month with sweeping restrictions aimed at hobbling China from using U.S. technology related to chips. The measures restrict sales of some advanced chips to Chinese customers and prevent U.S. companies from helping China develop some kinds of chips.That hurts semiconductor companies like Nvidia, which makes graphics chips used to run A.I. applications in China and elsewhere. The Silicon Valley company, already suffering from a sharp sales decline for video game applications, recently estimated that the U.S. restrictions would probably reduce revenues in its current quarter by about $400 million.The sanctions may bite even harder at companies that sell chip-making equipment, which relied heavily in recent years on sales to Chinese factories.Lam Research, which produces tools that etch silicon wafers to make chips, estimated that the China limitations would reduce its 2023 revenue by $2 billion to $2.5 billion. “We lost some very profitable customers in the China region, and that’s going to persist,” Doug Bettinger, Lam’s chief financial officer, said during an earnings call last week.Applied Materials, the biggest maker of chip manufacturing tools, also said sales would suffer because of the restrictions. On Wednesday, another maker of chip manufacturing tools, KLA, said its revenue next year was likely to shrink by $600 million to $900 million as it reduces equipment sales and services to some customers in China.Worries about foreign competition are nothing new in semiconductors, an industry known for boom-and-bust cycles. But it has rarely faced a player as potent as the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, whose factories on the island churn out chips designed by companies including Apple, Amazon, Nvidia and Qualcomm.China claims Taiwan as its own territory, creating a potential risk to chip supplies. That helped drive the recent bipartisan support for the U.S. chip legislation, which was heavily pushed by President Biden.President Biden trekked to Albany, Ohio, last month for the ground breaking of a $20 billion Intel manufacturing campus. Pete Marovich for The New York TimesHe trekked to Ohio last month for the ground breaking of a $20 billion Intel manufacturing campus. On Thursday, President Biden visited a site near Syracuse, N.Y., where Micron has vowed to spend as much as $100 billion over 20 years on a large complex to build memory chips, a project he called “one of the most significant investments in American history.”Those plants will be needed at some point, industry executives said. But they are now grappling with the sudden and sharp decline in chip demand. The problem is particularly acute in processors and memory chips, which perform calculations and store data in personal computers, tablets, smartphones and other devices.Those products were hot commodities as consumers worked from home during the coronavirus pandemic. But that boom has now cooled, with PC sales dropping 15 percent in the third quarter, according to estimates by International Data Corporation. The research firm also predicted that smartphone sales would fall 6.5 percent this year. Demand has been tempered by inflation as well as a lengthy Covid lockdown in China, analysts said.At the same time, inventories of chips piled up. Computer makers spooked by the shortage bought more components than they ended up needing, said Dan Hutcheson, a market researcher at the firm TechInsights. When customer demand dried up, they started slashing orders.“You see multiple issues converging,” said Syed Alam, who leads Accenture’s global high tech consulting practice, including semiconductors.Handel Jones, chief executive at International Business Strategies, predicts that total sales for the chip industry will still grow 9.5 percent this year. But he expects revenue to decline 3.4 percent to $584.5 billion next year. Last year, he had predicted steady yearly growth for the chip industry from 2022 until 2030.Warning signs included Intel’s second-quarter results, which it announced in July. The company posted a rare loss and a 22 percent drop in revenue, blaming its own missteps and customers who cut chip inventories.At Micron, the mood also changed quickly. In May, the company gave bullish presentations at an investor event in San Francisco about long-term demand for its memory chips. By the next month, it was warning of slowing demand and falling chip prices.In September, the company reported a 20 percent drop in fourth-quarter revenue. It also slashed planned spending on factories and equipment by nearly 50 percent in the current fiscal year.The swing in demand might seem to undercut Micron’s widely publicized expansion plans, which include the Syracuse complex and a new $15 billion factory in Boise. But chip manufacturers often juggle different time schedules. Since new factories take roughly three years to complete, waiting too long to build can leave them short-handed when sales rebound.“The long-term outlook for memory and storage is robust,” said Mark Murphy, Micron’s executive vice president and chief financial officer. The cuts in near-term capital spending, he added, are a needed response “to bring our supply in line with demand.”Intel’s situation is even more complex. The company has major factory expansions underway in Arizona, Oregon, New Mexico, Ireland and Israel, in addition to the new manufacturing campus in Ohio and one planned for Germany. Intel is also determined to start competing with T.S.M.C. in manufacturing for other companies, as well as making chips it designs.The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is a potent player in semiconductors, with factories that churn out chips designed by companies including Apple, Amazon and Qualcomm.An Rong Xu for The New York TimesIntel now plans to construct factory buildings while holding off on purchases of the costly machines inside them, which are a much bigger expense.Those purchases can be tailored to emerging demand for particular kinds of chips, said Keyvan Esfarjani, Intel’s executive vice president who oversees construction and operation of its factories. He said the long-term need to reduce U.S. and European dependence on chips made in Asia was too important to be halted by short-term business cycles.“This is beyond Intel,” Mr. Esfarjani said in an interview last month. “This is important for people, for communities, for the United States. It’s important for national security.” More

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    U.S. Details How It Plans to Police Foreign Firms

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    A government committee issued new guidelines for how it determines penalties for foreign companies that break agreements to protect U.S. national security.WASHINGTON — The federal government on Thursday laid out for the first time how it will determine penalties for foreign companies that break agreements to protect American national security.When some foreign companies buy American firms, they sign agreements with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a group of federal agencies, in order to mitigate national security concerns about the new ownership. The committee, known as CFIUS, has the ability to levy fines, some of them very large, on companies that break those agreements.The new guidelines issued on Thursday give insight into how the committee, which wields considerable power over foreign transactions but is often seen as a black box, makes its decisions. In recent years, CFIUS has forced a Chinese company to sell the dating app Grindr and has made another Chinese firm divest an American maker of hotel management software. The committee is currently negotiating an agreement with TikTok, the popular video app, to resolve concerns posed by its Chinese ownership.According to the new guidelines, the committee could consider more serious penalties when a foreign company’s failure to follow an agreement causes an especially grave risk to national security. CFIUS would also consider whether it took a long time for the committee to learn of a foreign company’s failure to comply with an agreement. And it would take into account whether a company’s failings had been intentional or simply negligent, according to the new guidelines, which are not binding.President Biden has been trying to limit the sway that China and other adversaries have over American companies and consumers. Lawmakers and regulators have grown increasingly concerned that China could use its proximity to major computer chip manufacturers in Asia to influence the supply of a device that is central to a vast array of products, including appliances and automobiles. Many are also worried that Chinese-owned apps like TikTok and WeChat might hand over Americans’ data to Beijing under Chinese laws.This month, the Biden administration issued restrictions that stop Americans from working with Chinese chip companies. Last month, Mr. Biden signed an executive order directing CFIUS to closely scrutinize whether corporate deals involving foreign companies, including from China, would expose the personal data of Americans or involve crucial emerging technologies.The guidelines issued on Thursday do not name any specific foreign country.Paul Rosen, the assistant secretary for investment security at the Treasury Department, which oversees CFIUS, said in a statement that most foreign companies abided by their agreements on national security. But, he said, “those who fail to comply with CFIUS mitigation agreements or other legal obligations will be held accountable.”The committee has been busy in recent years, reviewing hundreds of corporate deal filings in 2021, according to the reports it sends to Congress. In some of those cases, the committee agreed to approve a deal only if the foreign company agreed to carry out measures designed to reduce its concerns.Mr. Rosen said in his statement that the guidelines sent a “clear message” that it was “not optional” for companies to follow their agreements with the government.Under federal law, the government can fine companies that violate their agreements with the committee. The fines can be significant, reaching as high as the total value of the corporate deal in question.The guidelines also publicly explain how companies can challenge a penalty from the government, and they shed more light on how the committee monitors for violations. According to the memo, the government learns of possible violations from “across the U.S. government, publicly available information, third-party service providers (e.g., auditors and monitors), tips” and participants in the deal itself. More