Texas Instruments Lays Off Its MCU Team in China

Texas Instruments has disbanded its MCU team in China (keeping the market and application teams, but abandoning RD), and relocated the entire MCU product line to India.

It is said that currently all members of the team have been dispersed and assigned to other product lines, with their positions and salary remaining unchanged in name.

The company gives employees two options: either accept the arrangement to work in another product line, or voluntarily resign. This move is actually quite cunning, indicating that the company has no intention of going through a layoff process and will not provide any compensation to employees who choose to leave voluntarily.

The MCU development team of Texas Instruments in China mainly focuses on the MSP430 product line, which is a series of 16-bit ultra-low power and low-cost MCUs introduced to the market by TI since 1996. Currently, some members of this team have been laid off, while others have been merged into the LED DRIVER chip team. Now, there is a frenzy in the domestic MCU community to “snatch” talent.

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Mingsheng Securities’ Chief Analyst, Fang Jing, stated that the MCU team of TI (Texas Instruments) was once one of the best localized operating product lines in China. They focused on the Chinese market and specialized in local customized development with very fast customer response. However, since early 2018, they have been on a decline as domestic MCU emerging manufacturers gradually took over the market and squeezed their survival space. “This team was mainly based in Shanghai and it became even more difficult to operate during the epidemic period, so they decided to withdraw.”

He believes that although some employees can choose to transfer to other teams, the transition from digital to analog is quite significant. Therefore, it is more of a temporary solution for TI and they do not want to pay severance compensation. The rise of domestic MCUs has accelerated, putting pressure on overseas industry leaders. This comprehensive downsizing is believed to further promote the substitution of domestic MCUs.