Intel Backs Out of Mobile World Congress Following Coronavirus Concerns

A sizeable number of high-profile tech companies have begun dropping off the roster of the Mobile World Congress event and Intel is the latest to announce its withdrawal. The MWC is still scheduled to begin on February 24th in Barcelona, Spain.

Intel has made the decision to not attend the upcoming MWC, according to VentureBeat. Amongst the other companies who have decided to drop out, such as Amazon, Sony, ZTE, LG, NVIDIA and Ericsson, Intel has opted out due to growing concerns over the coronavirus.

A spokesperson representing Intel spoke to VentureBeat and said: “The safety and wellbeing of all our employees and partners is our top priority, and we have withdrawn from this year’s Mobile World Congress out of an abundance of caution. We are grateful to the GSMA for their understanding and look forward to attending and supporting future Mobile World Congress events.”

While Intel is still planning to conduct its planned announcements during the event, the show floor will not include the presence of the tech giant.



The MWC draws in more than 100,000 attendees each year from all over the world. To ensure the safety and health of each member in attendance, the GSMA, the MWC’s parent company, has instilled new safeguards. It was reported that attendees from the Hubei province in China will not be permitted to attend and temperature screenings will be implemented.

As the days continue to count down to the opening day of MWC, we may see more companies drop off. Currently, there have been over 43,000 cases of coronavirus and nearly 1,100 deaths because of the virus.