Samsung to terminate its CPU design team in the United States

The company will still keep a massive presence in Texas.

What you need to know

• Samsung is rumored to be considering eliminating its CPU chip design team.
• The company notified Texas of impending layoffs at the labs that house CPU research.
• Samsung manufacturing in Austin will not be affected.

Samsung has filed documents with the Texas Workforce Commission notifying the state of impending layoffs, a move that comes amid rumors that the electronics giant will cease work on its own CPU cores and license entirely from ARM instead.

While the company employs 3,000 workers in a manufacturing facility in Austin, those workers would not be affected and the labs in question would not be shut down entirely.

The so-called Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) letter sent to the state notifies of layoffs in Austin as well as at the Advanced Computer Lab in San Jose, CA. The letter does not specify how many workers in each state would be let go, but in total 290 workers on the CPU team are expected to lose their jobs. Companies are required by Federal law to notify local state officials if there will be a significant number of layoffs.

Per Michele Glaze, a Samsung spokeswomen:

We have treated all employees with respect. They all have been given appropriate packages and advanced notice," Glaze said. "These things are very tough. People always wonder, 'Did they treat them right?' And we did. It's unfortunate that they are losing their jobs, but it is based upon the fact that we're always assessing our business.

While it sounds like Samsung handled the layoffs as best as it could, it does create for questions regarding the future of Samsung's own Exynos processors. This isn't the first bit of news to suggest that Samsung is looking to get out of this game, so it'll be interesting to see where things go from here.

Exynos Smartphone

Motorola One Action

$350 at Motorola

Samsung-powered Motorola action cam

The Motorola One Action is unique in a few ways - mostly its wide-angle lens that lets you capture true horizontal video while holding the phone in portrait. It also sports a Samsung Exynos octa-core processor.

Philip Berne worked from 2011 to 2017 as part of Samsung's Public Relations team and maintains no business or financial relationships with Samsung nor is he currently bound by non-disclosure agreement.