Israeli employees of the multinational technology corporation Intel can be at ease, having recently received bonuses reaching nearly 3 times their usual salaries, N12 reported. And considering the roughly 13,000 Israelis employed by Intel today - the company's ability to provide the bonuses is noteworthy.
The bonuses were given as the company marked the end of the business year - 2020 - one of the toughest years financially speaking that the world has ever seen.
Most of the company's employees will be receiving the bonus, which has been an annual "tradition" of sorts since 2015, according to N12. The coronavirus pandemic won't change that, the report noted.
At the beginning of 2020, it was reported that exports from Intel’s operations in Israel surged by more than 69% to $6.6 billion. However, it was hard to expect that the company would present similar numbers during a world pandemic that caused many small and big companies to completely shut down, as people remained at home and cut their expenses dramatically.
Intel however, surprised the industry yet again, as it began 2021 after having presented its best financial reports to date, with the company's income reaching $78 billion - an 8% growth within one year alone.
And Intel is not alone. According to N12, the global high-tech industry did not only survive the coronavirus pandemic, but often thrived thanks to it, with many of the pandemic's outcomes being the accelerated process of digitized services and an increased demand for technological products.
In addition to the direct employment of about 13,000 workers, a study published by the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology last year found that Intel Israel’s operations indirectly contribute to the employment of a further 53,000 individuals, making Intel the largest employers in Israel's high-tech industry.
And while Intel's operations in Israel only seem to be growing, having recently introduced a new system that will allow people to withdraw money from ATM machines across the country by facial recognition, the company also announced earlier this month that its CEO for the past two years, Bob Swan, will be ending his position on February 15.
Swan's replacement, recently announced as tech industry leader Pat Gelsinger, will attempt to re-establish the company's status in the field of computer processors, which has been steadily declining in recent years. Eytan Halon and Zev Stub contributed to this report.