Intel employees receive 1.8-month bonus in rebound from last year’s cut
The payout marks the final bonus under a compensation system the company is now phasing out.
Intel Israel employees will receive a combined annual bonus totaling 1.8 months’ salary, with the local portion amounting to 1.2 months, marking a rebound from last year’s unusually low payout of 0.8 months. “As in previous years, employee bonuses are paid based on company and business performance,” the company said.
This bonus is the final one distributed under Intel’s previous compensation structure, which included a variable “local component” in addition to base pay, quarterly profit bonuses, annual performance bonuses, and stock-based rewards. Under the new salary model, which took effect January 1, 2026, the separate variable component will be integrated into base pay. Therefore, the current payout, scheduled for February, is the last to follow the old formula.
The previous bonus system had allowed payouts to fluctuate sharply based on performance. For comparison, employees had regularly received 2.5-3 months’ salary in annual bonuses before 2025, when the company reduced the payout to 0.8 months.
Intel’s broader compensation system will continue to provide quarterly profit bonuses, annual performance bonuses, and stock-based rewards, which will now be calculated on top of the updated base salaries under the new structure.
The bonus announcement comes in the wake of Intel’s fourth-quarter 2025 earnings, which reflected a cautious optimism. The company reported $13.7 billion in revenue, exceeding guidance, with earnings and gross margin also beating expectations. Yet CEO Lip-Bu Tan emphasized that supply constraints, manufacturing bottlenecks, and years of underinvestment continue to limit Intel’s ability to fully capitalize on demand, particularly for AI-driven workloads.
Intel stock closed at $45.07 on Friday, down 17% on the day, marking the company’s biggest single-day selloff since Aug. 2, 2024, when the shares plunged 26%.
“This will not happen overnight, and our execution needs to continue to improve. We will stay humble as we address the work ahead and we will never be satisfied,” Tan told analysts.
Earlier this month, Intel unveiled at CES its Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processor family, codenamed Panther Lake, developed with the involvement and leadership of Intel’s development centers in Israel. It is the company’s first processor manufactured using 18A technology, Intel’s most advanced process to date. The new processors, which are expected to go on sale this month and be integrated into more than 200 computer models from a wide range of manufacturers, promise up to 27 hours of battery life, a roughly 70% improvement in gaming performance, and a 60% boost in multitasking performance.
