Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger downplays migration in tech race against China

The U.S. government must make high-tech jobs more attractive to young Americans and not import foreign specialists, according to Pat Gelsinger (the new CEO at Intel Corp.), which used once been the most renowned designer and manufacturer of computer chips.

Gelsinger is a skilled engineer who got his start at Intel by helping design the 80386 chip in 1982. On July 12, he told the Washington Post’s Ignatius that Intel’s board realized it had hired too many finance-oriented executives during the prior 15 years:

Intel lost its way. For a decade and half, we had non-technical leadership [business-trained] at the top of America’s most significant technology company. Some of this [responsibility] The board of directors, and their [hiring] decisions clearly go to them. It was some of that, “Hey we tried certain [technical] items, but we stumbled, and we failed with other programs as well.” However, the combination of these board decisions and management decisions has [downgraded] one of America’s great technology icons and we aren’t leading anymore.

Intel’s self-inflicted decline matches the experience of other companies that elevated the C-Suite’s stock-market priorities over professional merit.

Boeing’s 737 MAX aircraft, for example, crashed after stock-price executives sidelined American professionals in favor of cheap outsourced workers, including Indian graduates.

Intel’s corporate reports and federal data show that the company imported thousands of foreign professionals to fill American jobs.

Gelsinger stressed that Intel would continue to hire American students:

Are we creating an attractive domain for young talent to get into? We’ve just announced the Ohio project (to construct chip-fabrication plants in), for example, and our top universities, Arizona State University, Ohio State University Michigan State State University, Michigan State State University, Purdue, Michigan State University, Michigan State, Purdue — are eager to develop the curriculum that will enable us to have a long-term workforce.

Gelsinger was encouraged by Kevin Lynn (founder of U.S. Tech Workers), who supports the training of Americans and opposes large-scale importation of workers.

He knows the importance of American professionals because he is aware that Intel lost its way after non-technical leaders were placed in important managerial roles. American elites prioritize [economic] efficiency and earnings per share more than innovation and productivity for decades. People like Ignatius, one of the Beltway crapweasels, see immigration as a way to solve all problems. Gelsinger, a veteran in the field for many years, knows that it is about investing in America’s human capital.

But Congress’ efforts to revive Intel have been stalled by demands from investors for more foreign workers.

The House and Senate have drafted legislation that grants roughly $50 billion bill to jump-start technology development and domestic production by Intel and other companies. The CHIPS Act is responsible for funding technology.

But, the House included the CHIPS Act in the America COMPETES Act. This Act includes many other agendas. One of those agendas is in Section 80303, which would allow Fortune 500 companies and their subcontractors to import all of their skilled workers from China and India.

This legislation doubles the federal policy of rewarding executives for increasing corporate stock prices, rather than executives who improve industry productivity and innovation.

Since 1990, the federal government has allowed pr0fit-minded CEOs and investors to import multiple generations of visa workers and immigrants for skilled work. That wave of cheaper foreign workers has subordinated and sidelined many American professionals and many new graduates, according to a 2021 federal report.

Many CEOs have used the federal government’s pipeline of H-1B, OPT, L-1, and B-1/B-2 workers to replace outspoken American professionals with cheap, compliant, and subordinate foreign graduates, he said. These foreign workers can be sent home to their countries of origin if they are compliant and cheap because it is up to the CEOs whether or not.

Lynn continued:

I know, from my conversation with managers in America’s Fortune 500 companies, particularly our Fortune 500 technology companies, that a reliance on foreign workers and foreign managers only leads to [workplace] tribalism and politics … When we see a preponderance of people from one country — let’s just use India as an example — career movement throughout the company becomes political and not merit-based.

It is tribal because they also import their regional [rivalries], [crony] politics and their misogyny. They are aware that this’s how it’s got them the job. That’s why they want to keep a job in [the U.S.], with Indian managers, and obtain green cards.

These [workplace pressures] force out American technical workers, as they are often ill-equipped for dealing with such high levels of office politics. They are able to recognize merit. They know how to resolve technical problems. They are unable to overcome discrimination based on caste or country of origin.

CEOs use Indian office politics to silence complaints about Indian workers’ pay, working hours and abuse.

The foreign office politics minimizes American professionals’ opposition to the C-Suite executive’s omission of safety, security and reliability as well as long-term research.

Mary, a central New Jersey immigrant and software specialist who is also a H-1B worker said that visa workers are “very subservient” to the higher management. She told Breitbart News in 2020

I would explain to the executive professionally what was going on, but she wasn’t interested. She can’t be opposed in any way. You can’t oppose her if she says “It’s black,” even though it might be white. The Indian workers will tell her whatever she likes. If the manager doesn’t care and the information is incorrect, professionalism in the field can be lost.

This cultural shift has forced

Gelsinger to change.

In 2009, Gelsinger was forced out of Intel after 3o years of service, which had begun with a professional interview at a community college when he was just 18. He was forced out because Intel’s board put business-school graduates in the top jobs. The New York Times reported:

[CEO Paul] Otellini, his successors and he placed a high priority on Intel’s profits margins and failed to take chances to expand into new markets or outflank competitors. Former company insiders have admitted this.

Intel’s stock-focused executives recruited many foreign visa workers instead of American professionals.

A 2013 report at Dice.com, a job site used by many migrant workers, reported that “when it’s seeking to fill a position, [Intel] basically doesn’t care whether it’s a U.S. citizen or H-1B worker who fills it.”

For example, from 2017 to 2019, the company asked the federal government for roughly 4,300 H-1B visa work permits. It asked for 1,000 permits in 2020, and 3,000 in 2022.

Intel also hired many foreign graduates via U.S. universities’ Practical Training programs. In 2018, for example, they hired 1,348 foreign graduates, including 368 on one-year work permits and 1,111 on three-year work permits.

After being sponsored by Intel for green cards, temporary foreign workers could stay in America indefinitely. The workers nominated by Intel cannot usually leave their employer until they get their green card, which can often take decades. From 2017 to 2022, Intel nominated roughly 6,400 foreign workers for green cards.

Most of the workers who are applying for visas are not experienced and are often less skilled than American professionals. The company sought green cards for fewer than people who arrived with O-1 “genius visas” which are given to people with a record of “Extraordinary Ability or Achievement.”

The company’s 2021 diversity report shows that “Asians” — including many Indian and Chinese visa workers — now comprise almost 40 percent of the technical staff, up five points from 35 percent in 2014. “Whites” — mostly Americans — comprise less than 42 percent of the technical staff.

This population replacement has reshaped the company and damaged the quality of research and production.

“Intel also has a huge H-1B issue, which is why they are behind,” another software professional said to Breitbart News.

“I was brought up that if you find an [technical problem] issue, raise it immediately,” a U.S. professional who worked at Intel told Breitbart in 2020. He said that the rules in Indian departments are different.

Don’t tell your colleagues about a bug you have found. Notify your Indian boss because they will want to verify that it is not their issue and their bug. Do not go through the usual process.

“I found a bug that caused me to get into trouble with the Indians,” he stated. He said, “It was clear that our device caused the problem.” When he disclosed the issue via email to his department, the Indian manager became “unglued” and screamed at him in a conference hall. He called me the worst engineer.

“Now, most of the managers are Indian so it is very hard for an American to get hired over there … I’d go into a room of 30 people and 15 to 17 of them are from India,” he said, adding:

They all hail from the same region in India, all of them know one another and hang out together. Half of the room contains Americans. The Indians have a tight knit group. They are able to recognize the hierarchy of castes… the guys on the bottom know how to get along with the upper caste. They won’t suckle up to Americans.

Indian managers have the ability to quietly trade jobs for company positions to junior Indians in exchange for bribes. This gives them an incentive to fire U.S. workers and force open job opportunities, as multiple Indian visa workers told Breitbart News.

While working with an Indian manager, the American stated that “I was the top guy” and was assigned the most difficult tasks.

She disliked me and would say that I was the most inept engineer she had ever seen. I would belittled and she’d talk about her Bay Area friend who was searching for work. She was going to fire me, and she would hire her friend from the Bay Area. I left — it was the best thing I ever did … Within about a month, I looked back and said “What in the hell?” “Why didn’t I do this sooner?”

Intel’s management was more focused on merit when a 23-year-old Gelsinger — by then, a born-again Christian — criticized his Intel bosses in 1985, said a February 2022 report by the New York Times:

A few days later, Andy Grove (Intel CEO) called him. Hungarian-born Intel executive Andy Grove, who was later to write the management book “Only the Parnoid Survive,” made a unique culture that encouraged lower-level employees to question their superiors. The relationship between Mr. Grove and Mr. Gelsinger lasted for three decades.

[The next year, Grove] made him, at age 24, the leader of a 100-person team designing Intel’s [flagship] 80486 microprocessor.

One tech professional said

Corporate outsourcing is driving generations of Americans from the technology sector. She was a direct descendant of her grandfather, father and mother. She told Breitbart News in 2020:

I told my children, “Be good at computers but study something else.” My youngest is a biomechanical engineering student with a master’s degree. My middle son, a certified professional in safety and environmental health, is also credentialed. My oldest son is employed in defense. Although we can’t discuss what he does but it is likely that he makes more than his siblings. My daughter was a good bride.

The federal outsourcing policy “basically shuts out the citizens” from the technology sector, she said.

Washington’s lawmakers, staffers and journalists ignored the serious economic harm caused by the donor-driven strategy of allowing foreign investors to bring in their subordinate white-collar workers.

For example, beltway insider Ignatius pushed Gelsinger on July 12 to endorse greater reliance on foreign graduates:

I need to know if you believe the American semiconductor industry is equipped with the necessary talent to compete or if we should consider changing our immigration policies to allow for more skilled engineers from abroad. Do you have any thoughts?

Gelsinger answered with 157 words on the need to train Americans:

We need to rebuild those areas in our colleges and universities as well as community colleges. This is a top priority. This is something we have committed to. We’ve committed, for instance, in the Ohio [fabrication] project, $50 million of funding, which is complemented by $50 million from NSF [National Science Foundation] funding specifically on talent development.

Gelsinger is in demand of these foreign workers by his industry peers. His company is dependent upon them and it is not easy to find a quick solution. So Gelsinger added 136 words of waffled, partially garbled, and skeptical comments on migration before ending the interview:

In August 2021, Gelsinger gave a far more animated answer to the Washington Post on w he described his company’s plans to work with 18 community colleges to train the next generation of Americans:

Gelsinger also deflates investors’ profit expectations set by his business degree predecessors at Intel. The New York Times report:

Last March, Mr. Gelsinger announced Intel’s manufacturing expansion, including the foundry plan and the $20 billion Arizona project. Wall Street was shocked when he described the long-term financial impacts in October. Intel shed nearly $25 billion in market value in one day.

Congress is currently trying to assist Gelsinger in rejuvenating Intel.

But Congress has been slow to pass its draft bill offering $52 billion to companies that design and build computer chips in the United States.

The bill has been delayed by congressional horse-trading — including the investor plan to let Fortune 500 companies import an unlimited number of foreign workers for the careers needed by skilled American graduates. This giveaway is opposed by the Midwest GOP opposition — principally Senator Chuck Grassley, (Republican-IA), and Senator Todd Young (Republican-IN), who wish to see their communities and young people get high-tech jobs.

The giveaway has also been opposed by President Joe Biden’s deputies, especially Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. Biden’s East Coast network includes her, and often conflicts with Biden’s West Coast party faction.

Intel is promising to build a $20 billion production facility in Ohio, but that project may be canceled if Congress cannot get the funding approved with a “skinny bill,” Gelsinger told Ignatius:

If I was building a new fab in Asia, you know–and a new fab module is about a $10 billion investment per fab module, you know, enormous capital investment–it’s about 30 to 40 percent cheaper to do it in Asia. Strong incentives, ecosystem, and other factors are associated with it, but by far, the biggest is the capital incentives that are in place in those Asian companies–countries. The CHIPS Act is a leveler of the playing field. It simply gives us the incentives to build those factories in the U.S.

” Where the fabs (chip factories) are in the future is more significant than where oil reserves were for the past several decades when it comes to defining geopolitics and economic security,” he stated, adding that “it’s so important for our future .”

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